Through Time
by DreamonAlina
Summary: After being given an ancient ring from her grandmother, Katerina Draganova's life is turned upside down. Turns out, the ring gives her the power to jump through time. Specifically, through the Doctor's timeline. And not in order, either. Follow Katerina as she attempts to get back to her own life, and watch how she unravels in the story of the Doctor.
1. First Adventure

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Doctor who in any way, shape, or form! I do, however, own my OC, Katerina Draganova, and any other characters I make up!

**Summary: **After being given an ancient ring from her grandmother, Katerina Draganova's life is turned upside down. Turns out, the ring gives her the power to jump through time. Specifically, through the Doctor's timeline. And not in order, either. Follow Katerina as she attempts to get back to her own life, and watch how she unravels in the story of the Doctor.

**Author's note: **Hi! I just wanted to have a try at this. I am not usually good with Doctor Who fanfics, but it's only because I go in order and some episodes are really boring. But this way, I can do a bunch of fun episodes all out of order!

Oh, and Katerina is portrayed by Nina Dobrev, only because that's literally the only person I could picture as this story developed in my brain.

Dictionary-Bulgarian to English

Деца-Kids

Сестра- Sister

Бебе- Baby

Изгора- Sweetheart

A huge huge HUGE thanks to my very good friend grapejuice101 because without her this chapter wouldn't be as good as it could have been. Thank you so much!

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Katerina Draganova was a heavy sleeper. She always has been, and she always will be. She slept through her alarm, the TV, hell, this girl could sleep through the apocalypse.

Which is why Katerina didn't hear the sound of her bedroom door creak open, and the sound of footsteps creeping towards her bed.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KATERINA!" Was what nearly caused Katerina to die on her birthday. She gasped, flying her chocolate brown eyes open and turning to the sound of the screams. It was her family, consisting of her mother Kalina, and her younger siblings, Nikolai and Nikolina, who were twins.

"Mama!" Katerina complained, squinting. She wasn't fully awake yet. "What do you think you are doing?"

"It's your birthday," Kalina answered. "And we wanted to be the first ones to wish you."

"You also almost made it my death day," Katerina retorts, falling back on to her bed, throwing her arm over her eyes.

"Come on, Katty!" Nikolina said, shaking Katerina. Katerina was never able to get used to the twelve year old's energy. "We made your favourite pancakes!"

Katerina moved her arm an inch to reveal her eyes. "Chocolate chip?"

"With smiley faces and whipped cream," Kalina confirmed.

Katerina chuckled to herself, moving her arm back to cover her face. "Alright," Katerina said. "Get out of my room and I'll be there in ten minutes."

"Now!" Nikolai and Nikolina insisted.

"Come now, Деца," Kalina ordered, slipping into her native tongue. "Let your Сестра wake up."

Kalina ushered the kids out of the room, and Katerina picked her pillow up before crushing it to her face. Once everyone was out of her room Katerina felt one hundred percent better. Ever since they moved to the shabby little apartment in Waterville, Maine, Katerina always felt like she was being crowded.

Realizing she had to get up at some point, Kat pushed herself out of bed, threw on a sweater, switched out her shorts for more appropriate yoga pants, and slipped on her bunny slippers as she pulled her dark, very wavy hair into a large knot at the top of her head.

It wasn't a far distance from Katerina's room to her kitchen. She walked down the hall, and she was there. She plopped herself down on a chair at the small table, and her mother set down a plate of chocolate chip pancakes in front of her.

Katerina smiled up at her mother, who kissed the top of her head. "My baby is 21 today. Today, she gets whatever she wants," She said, wrapping her arms around Katerina, giving her a sideways hug.

"But tomorrow she's back to work," Katerina growled.

"That's how you go to college, Изгора," Kalina said as she went back to the stove.

Katerina looked over at Nikolai, whose face was stuffed with pancake. "Happy birthday!" He spluttered.

Kat laughed. "Nik, please chew before you talk," She said, grabbing a napkin and wiping her face.

"Listen up, troops!" Kalina announced, and her kids looked over to her. "Today, grandma Zara and grandpa Grigor invited us over for dinner tonight for Kat's birthday!"

"Yay!" The kids cheered. They loved their grandparents, but rarely saw them because they live in Belfast, a good time away from Katerina's family so daily visits aren't usually possibly. But on special occasions, Kalina would do something like this and it warmed her heart to see her children happy.

"Okay, then let's go! Take baths, get ready! We're gonna spend the whole day there!" Kalina told them.

The twins immediately dropped everything and ran to their bedrooms to get ready. Katerina rolled her eyes and quickly ate, bringing her dishes over as Kalina picked up her other children's dishes to wash.

"Has your father called yet?" Kalina asked, a tad bitterly.

Katerina took an extra second or to to finish off her milk before answering. "Not yet."

"I'm sure he will soon," Kalina said.

"I don't care if he does, Mama," Katerina said as she placed her glass on the counter next to her mother.

"Look, Бебе," Kalina said, turning to her daughter. "I know you and your father aren't on the best terms..."

"'Best terms'?" Katerina repeated. "Mama, this is the man that got another woman pregnant and ran away with her, leaving you and me to take care of two kids."

"Katerina Draganova, I don't want to have this conversation today," Kalina said as Kat bit her lip to keep herself from shouting out. "Just, please, go get ready to go to your grandparents."

"Fine," Katerina sulked, before she went off to her bedroom.

* * *

"Katerina!" Zara and Grigor yelled as Katerina and her family walked through the door. "How good to see you!"

"It's good to see you guys too," Katerina said, giving each of her grandparents a hug as she walked inside. The aroma of her favourite foods filled her nose, and Kat got giddy with excitement. Her grandmother was the best cook, and she was very excited to indulge in it.

"Come! Come! Sit!" Zara insisted, taking Kat's hand and leading her inside. Nikolai and Nikolina went off with Grigor, and Kalina followed her daughter and her mother into the living room.

"How have you been?" Zara asked in Bulgarian.

"Okay," Katerina responded in Bulgarian. Her grandparents didn't know a lot of English, as her parents and grandparents all moved to America when Katerina was three, so Katerina made it a constant effort to speak in Bulgarian with her grandparents.

"I have a present for you!" Zara said in Bulgarian excitedly, getting up. But Katerina frowned. Those were all words that she wasn't really familiar with, so she turned to her mother for a translation.

"She has something for you," Kalina answered, and Katerina nodded in understanding.

Zara came back with a ring sized box in her hands. She sat on the couch next to Katerina, and held out a shaky hand towards her. "Here, dear."

Katerina smiled, taking the box from her grandmother. She opened it, and inside was a beautiful locket ring. Katerina gasped at it's beauty. It had a lock on the front, and inside the box was a small key so it could be opened. Katerina opened the lock, and on the inside was a clock. An actual, clock.

"What's the clock for?" Kat asks.

"For time!" Zara answered.

"Thank you, grandma," Katerina said with a big smile on her face.

"You like it?" Zara asked in English with a heavy European accent.

Katerina nodded. "I love it, and I love you."

She leaned over to hug her grandmother as her grandma said, "It will bring lots of luck."

Kat pulled back. "It's beautiful, grandma," She slipped the finger on her ring finger on her right hand. "And it fits perfectly."

A little too perfectly.

"Grandma isn't the only one with gift!" Grigor said as he walked in, Nikolai and Nikolina on his heels. He hands Katerina a rectangular box, and she smiled at him as she opened it. She gasped at the sight of it. It was a necklace, with a gold chain and black pendant, lined with tiny diamonds and a gold rod in the middle.

"It's amazing!" Katerina said, reaching back and putting it on. "Where did you get it? It looks old."

"It is old," Grigor, whose English was better than Zara's, said. "It goes back seven generations of Draganov's."

"Draganov's," Katerina said, touching the pendant. After her father's infidelity was revealed and her parents divorced, Katerina resented her father so much that she had her last name changed from Angelova to her mother's maiden name, Draganova.

"A lot of history, it has," Grigor said. "I hope you cherish it."

"I will," Katerina said, squeezing the pendant in her hands.

* * *

Katerina came home that day very content with her life. She ate until she was stuffed like a toy, then ate the delicious cake that her grandfather had baked. Zara, as usual, made way too much food (but Katerina always assumed that she did it on purpose) and Katerina's family took some home.

Once they walked through the door, Nikolai went for the television, Nikolina went for her bedroom that she shared with her twin, Kalina for the showers, and Katerina for her bedroom. She quickly changed out of her clothes into a pair of sweat pants, a t-shirt and a baggy sweater, and was about to crawl into bed when her eye caught the ring. Katerina smiled at it, but moved to take it off. She didn't want it hurting her as she slept.

But when she tried to take it off, it didn't work. No matter how hard Katerina tugged, it wouldn't budge. She tried slathering lotion all on her hands to get it to slip off, but it was like it was permanently glued to Katerina.

She finally gave up and got up to get her mother's help when it started making a humming noise. Curious, Katerina tried to open it, but it was locked. It took her a couple of seconds of tugging on the lid to realize that she actually had the key. After she fished it out of her jeans pocket, and she opened the lid.

The handles on the clock in the ring were spinning out of control. Katerina banged on it, but to no avail. It wouldn't stop. It kept spinning.

Eventually, it started to glow. Sublty, so Katerina didn't notice at first (she was debating whether she should cut her finger off), but then brighter, and Katerina couldn't help but stare at it, mesmerized. The light turned into a projection of a clock, and the handles began spinning. It showed the present day, January 28th 2014, but it started clocking back to 2013...

"All of this from a ring?" Katerina couldn't help but mutter. That's when the light began to get bigger and bigger, until eventually, it covered Katerina's whole body. It didn't occur to her to scream for help, so when she felt a searing pain flow through her entire body, she finally screamed in pain.

All Katerina could see was light at first, but then she could see a dark blue wall. She landed on her feet, but she felt so shaky that she fell all the way to the ground. Her head was throbbing like someone was bashing a hammer against it.

"Oww..." She moaned, clutching her head, occassionally rubbing the sides of her head. The throbbing stopped after a minute or two, slowly, then all together.

Groaning, Katerina pulled herself to her feet, dusting herself off. It wasn't until she was standing did she realize that she wasn't standing in her bedroom anymore.

Instead, she was in a rather large room. Bigger than the house Katerina used to live in when she lived in Los Angeles. The room was a dark blue, with a strange sort of console behind her, with a bunch of different controls on them. The entire top of the room around was lined with white lights that were in rectangle form that was flashing.

There were three levels as far as Katerina could see. A staircase led to an upper balcony that was looking down over the console in the middle that judging by the doorways at the ends of them, led off into rooms. The level that Katerina was standing on had the console, a seating place, and doors everywhere. A stairway led to the final level that was too dark for Katerina too look down.

The console had 6 sides to it, and a bunch of different glowy stuff and levers and buttons that Katerina didn't dare touch in case they blew something up. In the center of the console was a clear tube, that stopped almost at the ceiling, where it was lead off into a large circluar tube with strange circular markings on it.

"Ah! You're here!" A voice said, and Katerina nearly fell back to the ground as she spun around. It was a man, who looked like he was in his thirties. He had dark hair, greenish grey eyes, and was wearing a dark tweed jacket with a purple bowtie, and had a large grin on his face. "I just got done the internet with Clara, where are you coming from?"

"Who are you?" Katerina asked with widened eyes. "Where am I? What have you done with me?"

The grin disappeared from his face almost immediately. "This is your first, isn't it?"

"My first what?" Katerina questioned.

"Your first jump," He muttered to himself, pulling out a little black book from his coat pocket and flipping through it.

Katerina ignored it. "Why didn't you answer my questions? Who are you? Where am I?" Her eyes widened at a thought. "Did you kidnap me?"

"What? No," He said. "I'm the Doctor."

"Doctor who?" She asked. What kind of name was 'the Doctor'?

"Just the Doctor," the Doctor said with a dismissal wave.

"Nobody can be just 'the Doctor'," She said, but shook her head. "You know what? Never mind. I don't care why I'm here, I don't care how I got here, all I care about is going home."

The Doctor looked down when she mentioned going home. "You can't."

"Why not? Take me home or I'm calling the cops," She said, digging into her pocket of her sweatshirt for her phone. Of course, she forgot it at home.

In three long strides the Doctor was in front of her and taking her right hand. "Hey!" Katerina protested. "What do you think you're-"

He cut her off by raising her hand in front of her. "Did this glow before you came here?"

The foggy memory eventually made it's way back to her. "Ye-yeah," She stuttered. "What does it have to do with anything?"

"This ring," He said. "Brings you to me."

"Why?" Katerina asks, ripping her hand back.

"We haven't figured it out yet," He said.

"'We'?" She asked.

"You and me."

"What do you _mean_? I've never met you before!" Katerina exclaimed.

"_You_ haven't," the Doctor agreed. "But your other selves, however, could say differently."

"What do you mean, my other selves? I'm only one person, you know!" She exclaimed. "Why can't you just take me home?"

"We've been trying to figure it out, Kat," He said calmly. "I'm sorry."

"So, you're saying that I'm stuck here?" She asked, her voice shaking. "Wherever here is?"

The Doctor nodded slowly.

"Where is this place, anyways?" She asked, looking up at the room.

"It's called the TARDIS," He answered.

Katerina rolled her eyes. "Why do you not seem like a real person? What's a TARDIS?"

"It stands for Time and Relative Dimensions in Space. It's my time machine."

"Time machine?" Katerina repeated, her eyes wide.

"Yup," He said, popping the p.

Katerina could only look around herself in awe, before looking back at the Doctor. "What are you?"

"A Time Lord," He said.

"Okay, now you're just being ridiculous," Katerina said with a hysterical laugh. "What's a Time Lord?"

"I'm an alien, from the planet Gallifrey," the Doctor said.

"So you're not human?" She asked, crossing her arms.

"No," the Doctor said as he shook his head.

Katerina scoffed. "Huh, just perfect," She said. Her dream was getting the better of her. "Okay, this is totally going to make a great story when I wake up."

The Doctor scrunched up his eye brows. "Dream? This isn't a dream."

"Of course it isn't," Katerina mumbled, before clearing her throat. "Okay, until this passes, what do I do?"

The Doctor grinned, standing up straight. "That's where the fun stuff comes in!"

He claps his hands before spinning on his heels. He starts pulling a bunch of stuff and pushing so many buttons that Katerina had a hard time keeping up. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to travel to tomorrow, so we can go with Clara somewhere!" The Doctor said, running to the other end of the console.

"Wait!" Katerina said, following him. "Who's Clara?"

"You met her-" He stops himself. "Right, you haven't met anyone, have you?"

Katerina shakes her head. "Right! Well, go change, because I doubt you will want to run around wearing your night clothes, and when you come back we'll be at Clara's tomorrow!"

"Wait!" Katerina said again. "A couple things first."

"Okay, what?" the Doctor said.

"Where do I change?" She asks.

"Oh! Your bedroom is upstairs, second door on the left," He answered.

"I have a bedroom?" Katerina asks, raising her eyebrows in surprise.

"Well, where else would you stay?" He responds with a question.

"Right," Katerina said, though she wasn't really paying attention to that.

"And the next?" the Doctor asked.

Katerina leaned closer. "Can I trust you?"

The Doctor's eyes trailed down to her lips, before slowing a huge lump in his throat and looking back up to her eyes. He reached into his coat, not taking his eyes off of her. He pulls out a letter, and hands it to her. "This is for you."

"Who's it from?" She asks, taking it from the Doctor.

"You and I talked once about what we'd do when I met you at a point where you had no idea who I was," he said. He pointed to the letter. "That's from yourself."

"So I wrote a letter to myself?" She asked.

He waved his hands. "Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey."

"Great," Katerina muttered to herself, turning around and walking towards the stair case. "I'm stuck in a dream where the man I've been held captive by doesn't even speak proper English!"

Upstairs, second door on the left, Katerina carefully turned the doorknob, and stepped in. She flicked on the light, and gasped.

Despite the moody appearance of the rest of the "TARDIS" as the Doctor had put it, Katerina's so called bedroom was full of colours. Literally. Three walls were painted a bright red while the last was painted white. Pictures covered the entire white wall, and Katerina wandered over to look at them.

There were a lot of pictures with the Doctor, Katerina seemed to notice. There were some with a short brunette woman, some with a red headed girl and a brown haired boy, some with a dark skinned dark haired woman, and some with a blonde girl. But Katerina noticed that most of the pictures weren't even of her. They were of other people. Some of the redheaded woman and the brown haired boy, some of the blonde girl, but they were mostly of the Doctor, doing random things. There were some of another man, sometimes he's wearing a blue suit, sometimes a pinstriped one. Katerina didn't understand how those pictures could have been taken if she didn't remember taking them.

Shaking her head, she headed over to her closet, and when she opened it, she almost fainted at the sight of how big it was. It was as big as her apartment back home, if not bigger.

She went in, and picked out a long sleeved, collared dress that was white on top, with an overlapping flowerprint, a belt at the waist, and the bottom is black and short. With a pair of beige stockings, she put on white boots. For her accessories, she wore a bowtie necklace, and metal feather earrings. She put on her black, rimmed fedora to finish it off. When she examined herself in the mirror, she noticed that she was still wearing the necklace that Grigor gave her. Katerina shook her head as she touched it. She couldn't believe it; because Katerina was forgetful, she had something of her grandparents to remember. She decided that day that she was never taking the necklace off.

Katerina turned to leave, but noticed the camera sitting on top of her dresser. She looked back at the wall of pictures, and grabbed the camera. Katerina loved taking pictures, which probably explained the wall o' pics.

She was about to step out the door when she remembered the letter. She walked back inside the closet, grabbing it off of her vanity mirror. She ripped it open, before unfolding the letter.

_Dear Katerina (aka myself, I guess)_

_ This is probably your first jump if the Doctor is giving you this letter. I'm not going to tell you anything, but what I AM going to tell you is, trust him. He might not seem like the most stable man at times, but he's good hearted and knows what he's doing (most of the time)._

_ And if it's your first jump, I'm sorry. You've still got a long way to go. I wish you luck with it. _

_ Katerina_

_ PS. I've instructed the Doctor and all of his companions (the people that he travels with besides me) that they're not to tell you anything of any of the experiences that they've had with you. You could find something out and unknowingly alter the timeline, which could have great consequences._

_ PPS. The pain that you feel when you first jumped? Sorry, that's going to get a lot worse._

_Great_, Katerina thought to herself as she dropped the letter onto the desk that she had in the corner. _This dream is getting realer by the second and I really want it to stop. I also sound crazy._

She was walking down the stairs right when the Doctor pulled a lever, and the floor suddenly jerked underneath her, causing her to fall to the side. She screamed as her hat fell off and she clung to the railings.

The violent shaking stopped after a couple of minutes, and Katerina sank against the steps. "_What_ was that?" She asked.

"It was the TARDIS," He said. "She does that when we go into flight."

Katerina grabbed her hat from the ground before plopping it back on. "A warning would have been nice."

"I'm sorry," the Doctor said in a sarcastic tone. "Next time, I'll tell you."

"That's all I ask," Katerina said, clasping her hands together. She walked around the Doctor so she was on the other side of him. Her hands fiddled with the controls, but she didn't push or pull anything. "Who is this, 'Clara' chick you keep talking about?"

"She's the one that is going to be travelling with us today," He said.

Katerina scoffed. "What, do you pick a new one up every day?"

"No, of course not!" the Doctor said, clearly offended. "I forgot how much attitude you had in the early stages."

"Early stages?" She repeated.

"Never mind," the Doctor muttered before speaking up again. "I never know at what point you end up with me, so I do have several different people over the years travelling with me."

"Wow, you sure work hard, don't you, Doctor?" Katerina said as she moved to sit down.

"Hey!" the Doctor said, offended again.

"Whatever, when is she gonna be here?" Kat asks.

"Right now," the Doctor said. He went over to the main doors of the TARDIS, and pulled it open. Rolling her eyes, Katerina got up to follow him. They were on a regular street, and they were parked in front of a house. _Huh, nothing _too _alien_, she thought to herself. But when she turned around to shut the door behind her, however, she got the shock of her life.

The box was smaller on the outside.

"What?" Katerina breathed. She turned around to face the Doctor. "I so did not think it would be smaller outside."

"What?" the Doctor asked.

Katerina turned around to face him. "You didn't think to mention that your time machine is like a clown car!"

The Doctor looked at her with scrunched eyebrows before he looked up, and his eyes brightened with understanding. "Right! The whole, 'bigger on the inside' thing." He nodded. "Sorry."

Katerina rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Go get your friend, I'm waiting inside."

The Doctor nodded, and continued up to the house. When he was gone, Katerina ran all the way around the TARDIS, inspecting every side of it. It was still the same size, no matter how many times Katerina ran around it.

"Impossible," She muttered to herself as she walked back inside to the giganticness of the TARDIS.

Right when she got back to the TARDIS console, the door opened, and the Doctor and the same short, brunette woman that Katerina had seen in one of the first photos she saw was following behind him.

"Clara! You remember Katerina," He said, pointing to her.

"Sure!" Clara said, coming over to Katerina to give her a hug.

"Whoa," Katerina said, stepping away from Clara's hug. "Way too fast, kid."

"What?" Clara said, confused. She turned to the Doctor.

He was just looking from Katerina to Clara, and finally caught on when both girls looked at him in confusion. "Right!" he said, scrunching his face in realization. "Katerina, this is Clara. Clara, Katerina. I know you met her before, but this is her first time meeting you."

"How does that work?" Clara asks.

"Remember when we first met and I told you about her ring that makes her jump in my timeline?" the Doctor asked her.

Clara's eyes light up. "Oh, yeah! So, this is her first time?" She asked, turning to face Katerina.

"I guess so," Katerina said.

"Well, don't worry," Clara said, taking Katerina's hands. "I promise I'll make it a good one."

"Okay," Katerina said, slipping her hands out of Clara's. "I get that you're a touchy feely kind of person, but I'm not. So let's keep it to standing next to each other with the very occassional hug, okay?"

Clara nodded, and the Doctor started pulling stuff on the TARDIS's console. Once the Doctor got everything going, he leaned back against his console. "So we're moving, through actual time?" Clara asked.

"Apparently so," Katerina said, going over to the little bench that the Doctor had and sat down. "I'm still waiting to wake up. I'm surprised my mother let me sleep so long on a work day."

Clara looked back at the Doctor in confusion at what Katerina said, but he just shook his head, prefering not to talk about it.

Clara just looked back at the TARDIS doors. With a grin on her face, she ran up to the Doctor. "So what's it made of?"

She continued without letting the Doctor answer. "Time. I mean, if you can just go right through it it's got to be made of stuff. Like jam's made of strawberries, so what's it made of?"

Katerina just shook her head at Clara's eagerness. She laid down on the bench as the Doctor and Clara kept going. "Well. Not strawberries. No. No, no, no. That would be unacceptable." He straightened his bowtie before turning around. Subconsciously, Katerina played with her bowtie necklace.

Clara ran around the other side and stopped in front of the Doctor. "And we can go anywhere."

"Within reason," he nodded. "Well, I say reason..."

"So we could go backwards in time," Clara suggested.

"And space," the Doctor agreed. "Yes."

"And forwards in time."

"And space," the Doctor added.

"Oh, for God's sake!" Katerina said, getting up. "It's a time machine. It can go anywhere!"

The Doctor and Clara turned to face her, a bit surprised by her outburst. The Doctor tapped Clara's arm and she turned her head to face him. "It's her first time. I remember in her first days she could hardly stand the sight of this place."

"I always will," Katerina said, her arms crossed.

"Well now that that's all cleared up," the Doctor said, clapping his hands. "Where do you want to go?" He asked, spinning on his heels and walking back to the front of the console. Just as eagerly, Clara went the other way, and Katerina just calmly followed. "What do you want to see?" He asked as they came face to face.

The eager smile on Clara's face dropped as she said. "I don't know."

"Well isn't that helpful?" Katerina said.

Clara looked between the two of them. "You know when someone asks what's your favourite book and then suddenly you forget every single book you've read?"

"All the time," Katerina said at the same time the Doctor said, "No, totally not."

The two frowned at each other before turning back to Clara. "Well, that's a thing," Clara sighed. "That, happens."

"And?" the Doctor urged. "Back to the question."

"Well, it's Katerina's first time too, isn't it?" Clara asks, motioning to the dark haired girl. "Why don't you pick?"

"Oh please, I really couldn't care less," Katerina said. "Pick somewhere, I really don't care."

"Okay," Clara said slowly. "So...so...so..." She turned to the door, pacing as she began to think out loud. "I'd like to see, I would like to see, what I would like to see is..."

"You ever going to finish that sentence?" Katerina asks as she watched the Doctor bounce up and down on the balls of his feet.

Clara turned around with a smile on her face, saying, "Something awesome."

The Doctor snapped his fingers, throwing his arms up in the air as he turned around. He pulled two levers down, making a big show of it which made Katerina roll her eyes, but she followed him as he continued pushing things and pulling things. If Katerina was honest, it kind of mesmerized her, watching him running around.

The Doctor's hand landed on a lever. He turned to Katerina. "Are you ready?"

Katerina smiled, for real since the first minute she got here. She put one hand on a bar, gripping tight, and stuck the other hand on her head so her hat wouldn't fall off. "Let's go!"

After a few seconds of the TARDIS shake, it stopped, and the Doctor lead the two girls to the front. He insisted that both girls closed their eyes. Clara did it without hesitation, but Katerina needed a bit of persuasion to do so, and she rolled her eyes as she did it. The Doctor took both their hands before leading them outside. Katerina on the right, the Doctor in the middle, and Clara on the left.

Katerina stepped outside, and felt a harsh light on her eyes. She inwardly shrank away from the light, which probably made her look weird to people with their eyes open.

"Can you feel the light on your eyelids?" the Doctor asked eagerly.

"Is that a real question?" Katerina asked, while Clara simply nodded.

Katerina could feel the Doctor's hands on her shoulders. She wanted to shrink away from him, but she forced herself to relax when she remembered her own advice to herself to trust this man. But he was getting stranger by the second and it was getting harder to do so.

"That is the light, of an _alien _sun," the Doctor said, and Katerina felt one hand disappear from her shoulder, and she assumed it was so the Doctor could take Clara's hand and guide her, because they were moving again.

"Forward a couple of steps," the Doctor said, and both girls complied.

"Okay," the Doctor said. "Are you ready?"

"Yes," Clara and Katerina said at the same time. Really, Katerina just wanted it over with. The Doctor made a huge fuss over it, so she just wanted to see what the fuss was about.

"No," Clara suddenly said.

"What, are you serious?" Katerina asked, her eyes still closed.

"Yes?" Clara said again, although it sounded like more of a question.

"Oh, for heaven's sake," Katerina said, and, completely fed up, she opened her eyes to see what the big fuss was about. And the sight literally made Katerina gasp.

She looked over to Clara, who had the same expression as her, before her gaze fell on the Doctor. "Welcome, to the Rings of Akhaten."

Right in front of Katerina's very own eyes was a huge orange sun. _An alien sun_, she repeated to herself. There were huge pieces of rock that were a part of the rings floating about, and Katerina had to control the urge to lean forward and grab one. Instead, she reached into her pocket and took out her camera, quickly snapping a picture.

"I'm really awake, aren't I?" Katerina whispered, and it took her a moment to realize that she had actually said this out loud.

"You really are," the Doctor answered her.

"It's..." Clara trailed off.

The Doctor laughed with giddiness. "It is! It so completely is. But wait! There is more!"

"More?" Katerina and Clara said at the same time.

"Wait," the Doctor said, looking down at his watch. "In about five, four, three, two..." At two, the Doctor's hand briefly grabbed Katerina's, but he quickly dropped it when he realized which Katerina this was. It was one who looked down at her hand and then back to the Doctor in bewilderment. It was the one who stared at the Doctor in confusion, before she pulled her hand away and crossed her arms, stepping a bit farther away from him, focusing on the space in front of her.

A largish asteroid that seemed to have some kind of city on it, passed to reveal another another with a rather large pyramid on it, glowing from the light of the close sun.

"What is it?" Katerina asked, displaying interest for the first time.

"The Pyramid of the Rings of Akhaten," the Doctor explained.

"Huh, clever name," Katerina commented. "Not very creative, were they?"

"I guess they didn't really take time to name it, Kat," He said. "It's a holy site for the Sun-singers of Akhet."

Clara glanced over at the Doctor. "The who of what?"

"Yeah, it's like you automatically assume that we know all of this stuff," Katerina pointed out.

"Ignoring that last comment," the Doctor started, which made Katerina roll her eyes. "Seven worlds orbiting the same star. All of them sharing a belief that life in the Universe originated here. On that planet."

"All life?" Clara repeated.

"In the Universe," the Doctor confirmed.

"Did it?" She asked.

"Well, it's what they believe," he said with a smile. "It's a nice story."

"Can we see it?" Clara asked. "Up close?" She looked over to Katerina. "If you would like to, too."

"You know what?" Katerina said, peering closer at the planet. "Yeah, I would."

The Doctor offered Katerina his hand, and after a moment's hesitation, she took it, and then turned and took Clara's as the three of them ran back inside the TARDIS.

* * *

After a quick trip, the trio ran back out of the TARDIS. Clara had let go of Katerina's hand, and when Katerina tried letting go of the Doctor's, he just clutched tighter. They came to a sudden stop, almost causing Katerina and her hat to fall to the ground.

Katerina's eyes widened at all the different things going on around her. There were _aliens._ Legitiment, _aliens_.

_ Well, the Doctor's an alien, _One half of Katerina's brain said.

_Yeah, but does he look like them? _The other half said as a person with a purple head turned to greet them.

"This isn't weird," Katerina said, and finally managed to get her hand out of the Time Lord's hand.

Clara was looking all around herself in wonder. She turned to face Katerina, grabbing her hand. "Come on!"

"What did we say about touchy feely?!" Katerina said as Clara lead her off, the Doctor chuckling as he shook his heads at those two.

Clara came to a full stop, causing Katerina to fall a bit forward and actually lose her hat this time. She quickly leaned over and picked it up before it could be squished by somebody. "Probably a bad idea to wear a hat," she mumbled to herself as she stuck it back on. Before she knew it, Clara was dragging her all the way back to the Doctor, and came to another full stop, but this time, Katerina was able to keep herself from falling over.

"Where are they from?" Clara asks while Katerina finally frees her hand.

"Oh, you know," the Doctor said with a shrug. "The local system mostly."

"And what do we call them?" Clara asked, glancing at Katerina.

"Well, let's see," the Doctor said as his eyes scanned the crowd. "Oh!" He said, pointing at an alien with a purple head, beady black eyes, pointy ears, a pointy nose, and a dorsal finlike thing on it's nose. "There goes some Panbabylonians."

He then pointed at a dinosaur looking alien. "A Lugal-Irra-Kush."

Then he was pointing at yet another alien grouping of aliens, "Some Lucanians."

"A Hooloovoo!" He pointed excitedly at an alien with it's collar practically all the way up to it's ears.

"Ah!" he said as he started walking, and the two young women followed him. "Qom Votivig!"

The Doctor did some weird looking handshake thing, bumping his stomach to the other's. "That chap's a Terraberseker of the Kodion Belt," He explained to Katerina and Clara, but really only Clara was paying attention, as Katerina was too busy taking photos. "You don't see many of them around anymore."

"Oh ho!" the Doctor said excitedly, running up to another alien. "That's an Ultramancer!"

"Are you always this excited or is today a special day?" Katerina asks, crossing her arms.

"I'm always like this, which you should figure out better soon enough," he answered, spinning around and walking back to Katerina and Clara. "You know, I forget how much I like it here, we should come here more often!"

"You've been here before?" Clara asks.

"Well, Katerina and I have been here before, and once, a long long time ago," He answered, and this time, Katerina didn't bother asking what he meant. "With my granddaughter," He said, walking away from the two of them.

Katerina widened her eyes in surprise at the new information, before turning to look at Clara, who had the same expression as her. "Hang on!" Clara shouted, and the two of them followed him, trying not to run into any aliens.

Before they could get there, a booth with jewelry caught Katerina's eye, and she waved Clara off. Katerina walked up to the stand. All of it was so...exotic, that Katerina couldn't help but smile. There were necklaces and earrings and rings of all different sizes and shapes and made of all different things, not just jewels. Katerina took out her camera and started taking pictures of them.

Katerina came across a red heart necklace, and her eyes widened at the sight of it. It looked like the one that her grandmother constantly wore, as it was a gift from her grandfather to her on the day that they got married.

She tucked her camera away into the purse she had brought with her, and lightly took the little heart in her hands. She touched the center of it, and fought the urge to cry. Would she ever see her grandparents again? Her mother? Her siblings? Hell, Katerina even wondered if she'd ever see her _father_ again.

"That's a lovely necklace," the Doctor said, and Katerina looked to her left to see the Doctor standing there, holding a basket of neon blue...things that looked like cupcakes.

"Yeah," Katerina said, looking back to it. "It looks like one that my grandmother has."

She sniffed, and when she looked back at the Doctor, he was lifting his hand to her face. She was about to ask what he was doing when she looked down and saw that he was wiping a tear that had managed to escape her.

When the Doctor brought his hand back, she lifted hers to wipe any excess tears on her face. "I would get it, but I haven't got any money. You would have thought that my ring would have at least given me the time to grab my wallet." Before the Doctor could say anything, Clara came up to them, and she was about to say something when she noticed the basket the Doctor was holding. "What is that?"

"Exotic fruits of some description," he said, pulling out some wand from his coat. Katerina was beginning to believe that he must have the entire world in that coat. He pressed a button on it as Clara and Katerina each took one, and it made some sort of buzzing noise as he waved it over the fruits. "Non-toxic, non-hallucinogenic. High in free radicals. And low in other stuff, I shouldn't wonder."

Katerina took a bite out of hers. The texture was like a slushy, and it had a tangy sort of flavour, that Katerina couldn't really describe. It tasted...off. Katerina didn't really like it, so she shook her head and put it back in the basket.

She looked over to Clara, who was shaking her head at the taste. "No?" the Doctor asked, looking at the two of them, who both shook their heads again. Clara put hers back down as she asks, "So, why is everyone here?"

"Ah!" the Doctor said, wrapping an arm around each of them as they started to walk. "For the Festival of Offerings," he explained. "It takes place every thousand years or so when the rings align. It's quite a big thing, locally. Like, Pancake Tuesday!"

Katerina just shook her head at the strange man. Was this really what she was going to look forward too?

A bark and snarl interrupted Katerina's thoughts, and she and Clara swivled around to see an alien. She and the short brunette immediately shrank into each other.

"Doctor!" Katerina yelled.

At the sound of her cry, the Doctor rushed right over and began yapping at the alien until it had backed off.

"What's happening?" Clara asks, shaking her shivers off. "Why's it angry?"

"That isn't an 'it'!" the Doctor said. "It's a _she_."

"That isn't weird," Katerina said, still shaking a bit at being so close to it. She still wasn't used to being around aliens and she guessed she never would.

"Dor'een, meet Katerina," He said, pointing to the girl. "And Clara."

"Doreen?" Clara repeated.

"Loose translation," the Doctor said, waving it off. "She _sounds_ a bit grumpy, but she's a total love, actually, aren't?" the Doctor cooed, reaching out and tickling Dor'een's chin affentionately, like you would a puppy. "Yes, you are."

"Anybody ever tell you how creepy you are?" Katerina asked.

"Several times, a long time ago," He answered.

"Well, allow me to be the first in a long time," Katerina said as she continued to eye Dor'een.

"She's just asking if we fancy renting a moped," the Doctor translated, and Dor'een backed up and gestured behind her where a big, snowmobile looking machine sat.

Clara nodded, and gave a deep bark, and Dor'een barked back, and the Doctor grinned at them.

_I'm surrounded by freaks, _Katerina thought to herself.

"So, how much does it cost?" Clara asked him.

"Not money," the Doctor said. "Something valuable. Sentimental value. A photograph, love letter, something like that. That's what's used for currency here. Psychometry. Objects psychically imprinted with their history. The more treasured they are, the more value they hold."

"Taking someone's treasures?" Katerina asked. That was awful!

"It's horrible," Clara agreed.

"Better than using bit of paper," the Doctor said.

"Then you pay," Clara said simply.

Katerina laughed. "Okay, I am starting to like the way that you think."

"With what?" the Doctor asked.

"You're a thousand years old, you must have something you care about," Clara said, turning around to look at something.

Katerina turned around too, to snap a picture of a rather odd looking plant that she was going to look up later, but when she turned around, the Doctor was gone, leaving just her and Clara.

"Doctor?" Katerina called, walking over to Clara. She had no idea where she was, but at least she'd be with someone she sort of knew.

"Doctor!" Clara tried, and the two young women started walking, looking for him.

"Great, just what we needed," Katerina muttered and when she turned around she ran almost smack into someone.

"Sorry," she said quickly, not wanting to offend whoever she almost crushed, but when she took focus, she saw that it was a little girl in a red robe, with reddish blondish hair, who looked panicked.

"Oh," She said. The girl appeared to be Nikolai and Nikloina's age, so she was very familiar on how to deal with kids that age. "Are you okay?"

Without answering her, the little girl took off, pushing right past her and Clara. They looked after the girl, and Clara turned and gave Katerina a look of bewilderment.

The sound of something jangling made Katerina and Clara turn around, and it was two men, who were wearing the same red robe as the little girl that just passed them.

"Have you seen her?" The man on the left asked them.

"Who?" Clara asked.

"The Queen of Years," He explained.

Katerina and Clara exchanged looks. "Who?" Katerina asked as she faced the men again.

Realizing that the women didn't know anything, the man on the right motioned to the man on the left, and they both left.

"How odd was that?" Clara asked as they watched the men disappear.

"Wait," Katerina said, something dawning on her. "The little girl that just passed us was wearing the same robes as those two men."

"So?" Clara asked.

"_So,_ maybe that's who they're looking for," Katerina explained.

"Then let's go tell them," Clara said, moving to find one of the men.

"No!" Katerina protested, grabbing Clara's arm. "Did you see how frightened she looked? She was terrified. Maybe she's running from them."

"Then we should go find her and help her," Clara said excitedly, grabbing Katerina's hand to pull her away.

Katerina was prepared this time, though. "No! Why should we get caught up in someone else's mess?"

Clara looks at her in disbelief. "The first time I met you, you said that helping people was what you and the Doctor did."

"I did?" Katerina asked, perplexed.

"Yes, you did. Now, come on!" She said, gripping Katerina's hand harder, and Clara tugged her along in the direction the little girl went.

_When is my day going to get better?_ Katerina asked herself, struggling to keep her hat on as she ran.

* * *

**TBC...**

**And that's the first part! It is really super long, and I was going to put the whole episode in this until I actually realized how freaking long this was.**

**SO, the next part is going to follow up quickly, because I'm already working on it!**

**Katerina's outfits on Polyvore! (Link in my profile)**

**REVIEW! FOLLOW! FAVOURITE! THANKS! STAY TUNED!**


	2. Saving the Worlds from an Orange Sun

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Doctor Who! I just own my OC, "Katerina Draganova", and any other characters I make up on the way!

**Author's Note: **I am so glad you guys are liking this? I was a little iffy at first, but now I'm really getting into it! Oh, and expect Katerina to act like this a majority of this story. I think I might split it into books, like, separate parts. I don't know yet, but I'll be sure you let you know as soon as I do. Also, I am open to taking requests of episodes, and I'll consider them if they fit well into my storyline.

Thank you to everyone who's reviewed! Thanks!

* * *

**Enjoy!**

Katerina and Clara came to a stop when they reached some sort of cave. "Hello?" Clara called out.

"Little girl?" Katerina tried.

The sound of a bang from behind them made both girls yelp, and they turned to see what made the noise, but nothing was there. Clara sighed in relief, but Katerina wasn't so sure.

Turning around, they walked further in, and the sound of footsteps coming from Katerina's left is what made her turn, and she was face to face with the little girl again.

"Are you lost?" Katerina asked at the same time Clara asked, "Are you okay?"

She glanced at them, terrified, before taking off again. The two girls followed her, looking around the huge storage area. There was a scream, and Katerina and Clara automatically screamed too, clutching at each other. They quickly let each other go when they see the same girl.

They had a little stare down, until eventually, Clara started giggling, the little girl doing the same. Katerina though, was looking between the two of them like they were crazy.

_I'm not going to make it here_, Katerina thought to herself.

"Are you alright?" Clara asked, and the little girl nodded.

"What are you doing here? Who are you hiding from?" Katerina asked after she recovered.

"How did you know I was hiding?" The little girl asked.

"Well, you're in a big storage room, thing, by yourself," Katerina said. "Either you're hiding or you really don't like people."

"You don't know who I am?" The little girl questioned, a confused look on her face.

Katerina and Clara shook their heads. "Sorry, no," Katerina told her.

"So why did you follow me?" She asked.

"Well, Preppy McHelpy over here dragged me here," Katerina said, and Clara poked her in the stomach with her elbow.

"You looked lost," Clara said.

"I don't believe you," The girl said, shrinking into herself.

Clara looked behind her and Katerina, then back to the girl. "We've got no idea who you might be," Clara whispered. "We've never been here before, well, at least me. I've never been anywhere like it. We just saw a little girl who looked like she needed help.

"Really?" The girl said hesitantly.

"Really really," Clara said.

"Can you help me?" She asked.

"That's why we're still here," Clara said, putting her hand on Katerina's arm.

"What did we say about touching?" Katerina said, slinking her arm away from Clara.

"I need to hide," the little girl said, interrupting the two.

Clara's eyes light up, and she looks over to Katerina. "I know the perfect box," She said, extending her hand to the girl.

Katerina looked from the little girl back to Clara. "Are you saying you want to take the girl back to the TARDIS?" Katerina whispered.

"Yes," Clara whispered back.

"What about the Doctor? What'll he say?" Katerina asked, but then she stopped herself. "Hang on. That man kidnapped me," Katerina said, before extending her hand too. "Let's go see if we can call a policeman."

* * *

There was a strange heavy breathing that seemed to follow Katerina and Clara as they led the little girl out of the storage area.

Peeking over a corner, the three of them shrank back as three strange looking aliens passed. After they were gone, they quickly ran out, watching out all around them. They quickly made it back to the TARDIS.

"What's this?" The little girl asked.

"It's a space, shipy, thing," Clara said distractedly, looking back to see if they were at all followed. "Timey, spacey."

"Does anybody speak proper English here?" Katerina asked, throwing her hands up.

"It's teeny," The little girl commented as Clara grabbed onto the door handles.

"You wait," She said to her, before pulling on the doors. They wouldn't budge though, and Clara frowned as she tried again.

"What's wrong?" The little girl asked.

"I don't know," Clara said, stepping back, hands on her hips. "I don't think it likes me."

Katerina's jaw dropped open. "'It doesn't _like you_?" Katerina repeated. "It is a _box_. Sure it's a time machine, and it's bigger on the inside, but it's _still a box_."

_Why am I the only sane one here?_ Katerina asked herself pitifully.

During their little conversation, the little girl had quietly slipped behind the TARDIS. Katerina and Clara looked over, and Katerina went over to where she saw her. "Little girl?"

She peeked her head over. "My name is Merry," She said, before going back behind the TARDIS.

Clara went the other way while Katerina continued to follow behind Merry.

Seeing her sitting on the ground made Katerina smile, and she sat down next to her. Merry reminded her of Nikolina, in a way. "What's happening? Does someone want to hurt you? Is that why you're hiding?"

"No," Merry said. "I'm scared."

"Of what?" Clara asked, now sitting on her other side.

Merry looked between the two of them before saying, "Getting it wrong."

Clara took a deep breath in. "Okay, can you pretend like we're totally space aliens and explain?"

"I'm Merry Gejeluh," Merry said.

Katerina and Clara exchanged glances as Clara said, "We're really not local,

sorry."

"The Queen of Years," Merry explained. "They chose me when I was a baby. The day the last Queen of Years died."

"Okay..." Clara said, waiting for her to continue.

"I'm the vessel of our history," Merry continued. "I know every chronicle, every poem, every legend, every song."

"Every single one?" Clara asked.

Merry nods with a sigh.

"That's a horrible thing for a girl so little to have on her shoulders," Katerina said, fighting the urge to pull Merry towards her in a hug like she used to do with Nikolina.

"Blimey, I hated history," Clara joked.

"Me too," Katerina couldn't help but add.

"Now I have to sing a song in front of everyone," Merry said, a slight shake

in her voice. "A special song, I have to sing it to a God," She finished, her eyes trailing away. She looked back to Katerina. "I'm really scared."

Katerina smiled at the little girl. "Everybody gets scared when they're little. I used to be scared of the dark. Whenever my father turned the light out, I would always cover my face with my blanket, and sometimes I still couldn't sleep, so I would snuggle in with my mum and dad. And then to fix this, my parents got me a nightlight. Now one day, there was a blackout. And my nightlight went out."

"What happened?" Merry asked.

"I screamed. I felt like I couldn't breathe. And my mum came rushing in. She picked me right up, and started rocking me back and forth, singing this one song that always made me smile, ever since I was a baby. It's okay to get scared, Merry," Katerina said.

"Listen to Katerina," Clara said. "I used to be terrified of getting lost. I used to have nightmares about it," She said, looking down, a cloudy look in her eyes. She looked back up at Merry. "And then, I got lost. Blackwood beach, bank holiday Monday, about ten billion people and I was about six. My worst nightmare come true."

"What happened?" Merry asked, and Katerina found herself nodding in agreement with the little blonde. Knowing virtually nothing after supposedly knowing Clara, Katerina was eager to find some stuff out.

"My world ended," Clara answered. "My heart broke." The edges of Clara's lips lifted as she broke into a smile. "And then my mum found me."

Katerina and Merry both smiled, but Katerina quickly caught herself and stopped. "We had fish and chips, and she drove me home, and she took me to bed and she told me a story."

Clara's eyes turned cloudy, and Katerina imagined that she was thinking of the story that her mother told her that day.

"You were never scared again?" Merry asked, and it looked like it snapped Clara out of whatever reverie she was in.

"Nah," Clara said, shaking her head. "I was scared lots of times. But never of being lost."

The three of them smiled, before Clara spoke up. "So, this 'special song', what are you scared of exactly?"

Merry looked down before she answered. "Getting it wrong. Making grandfather angry."

"Trust me kid, you're going to get nowhere constantly living in fear," Katerina said. "Do you think you're going to get it wrong?"

Merry was silent as Katerina continued. "I don't. I don't think you'll get it wrong. I have a lot of faith in you. I believe in you. Maybe it's time you believed in yourself. I promise it'll be okay."

Merry's smile grew with every word Katerina said, and when she was finished, she leaped forwards, grabbing Katerina into a hug. Katerina didn't like contact from people she didn't know (hence why she insisted that Clara and the Doctor not touch her) but poor little Merry Gejeluh looked like she was in need of a hug, and to be honest, Katerina enjoyed squishing the little girl against her chest.

* * *

After their little pep talk, Katerina, Clara, and Merry got out from behind the TARDIS and stepped back out into the open market area. This time, Katerina let Merry hold on tightly to her hand, and Katerina knew Merry was holding onto

Clara's hand with the same ferocity.

The came to a stop when they found the same people in the red robes from before, and Katerina looked down at Merry for confirmation that she was ready. Merry gave a slight nod, and they looked back to the men in robes, who caught their eyes and walked towards them. Katerina pushed Merry slightly forwards, and she walked towards the men.

"I think you did good," Clara said to Katerina as they watched the men put

a necklace of flowers over Merry's neck.

"I didn't do much," Katerina said as Merry looked behind them one last time before following the two men.

"Yes, you did!" Clara insisted. "That girl was terrified before. But after talking to you, she went willingly to them."

"You helped too!" Katerina said. "Your story definitely helped her."

"Of course it did," Clara said with a smile. "But this is the kind of stuff that you and the Doctor do together all the time."

"Really?" Katerina asked, looking back at the spot where Merry was at.

"Yes," Clara said, nodding her head.

Katerina looked back over to Clara. "Well, now that you're with him, this is the kind of stuff that you'll be doing too, don't worry."

Just as Katerina finished her sentence, she felt someone behind her, and when she turned around, she saw that it was the Doctor, eating the same slushy fruit from before. "What have you two been up to?" He asked.

"Exploring," Clara answered.

"It's a very unique place here," Katerina agreed. The three of them exchanged looks as they all shrugged.

With a nod, the Doctor started walking forwards without a word. Katerina and Clara exchanged bewildered looks, before going after him. "So is this 'not explaining anything' thing something I should get used to?" Katerina asked.

* * *

Following the Doctor inside a room revealed to be a stadium, Katerina came to an abrupt stop, lurching forward and nearly losing her hat again. "I'm never wearing a hat again," Katerina mumbled to herself as she righted it. She turned around to follow Clara and the Doctor, and they walked up the seats of the stadium, walking past a bunch of aliens Katerina tried her best not to step on.

They sat down, Clara bumping into an alien as she sat. She muttered a quick apology before she turned to the Doctor. "Are we even supposed to be here?"

"Shh!" the Doctor said.

"But are we?" Clara asked.

"Don't kill the fun!" Katerina said to her. "Live a little!"

"I can live," Clara, said, crossing her arms. "Let's get on with it!"

They all looked back to the front, and the first thing that Katerina noticed was that it was Merry standing at the front. Merry looked back, and Katerina gave an encouraging smile to her, waving a little to her. Smiling back slightly, Mary looked back to the front, and she began to sing.

It was gentle, the perfect voice for a girl her age. Eventually, a male voice from the pyramid on the asteroid across from them joins Merry. It was something that Katerina could fall asleep to. In fact, she was dozing off when the Doctor nudged her. She snapped back to attention, and looked over at him. She scrunched her eyebrows at the sight of him wearing very round, Harry Potter-esque glasses.

"They're singing to the Akhaten in the Temple. They call it the 'Old God', sometimes 'Grandfather.'"

"What are they singing?" Katerina asked. "It sounds wonderful."

"The Long Song," the Doctor answered. "A lullaby without end to feed the Old God and keep him asleep. It's been going on for millions of years, chorister handing over to chorister, generation after generation after generation."

"Akhaten..." Merry sang.

"It's a lot of pressure for a little girl," Katerina commented. She knew if she was in Merry's position she would have been too frightened to do it. She now felt even worse for the little girl than she did before.

The alien beside Katerina opened up his hand, revealing a piece of food. Perplexed, she looked around and saw all of the aliens in the stadium doing the same, but with other objects other than food in their hands. "What's going on?" Katerina asked the Doctor.

"They're offerings," He explained as Merry continued to sing. "Gifts of value, mementoes to feed the Old God."

Clara giggled as she saw the offerings turn into bits of gold dust and swim up into the air towards the sun, and Katerina took her camera out again, sneakily taking pictures of the ordeal.

"Oh God of..." Merry started smiling. "Oh God of...oh God of Akhaten..."

"Sleep my precious king," another male voice sang.

Suddenly, the whole crowd was singing. Katerina gazed above at them in wonder. How could they all know the words?

"Lay..." the Doctor tried, but he was too early, and Katerina couldn't help but laugh at him. He stuck his tongue out at her before chuckling himself.

"Lay down my warrior," the crowd sang around the threesome.

"Oh god of...oh god of..." Merry's voice shook. "Oh god of...oh god of...oh god of Akhaten..."

Merry's voice faltered, as did the back up voice. A rumbling sound began erupting from the pyramid. Wide eyed, Merry turned around to face the audience, and in that moment, Katerina had known that something had gone wrong, it didn't need a genius to figure it out.

"Has this ever happened before?" Katerina asked the Doctor, looking around at the crowd who had no idea what was going on either.

Before Katerina could even blink, a gold light sparked out of the pyramid, grabbing onto Merry, pulling her up into a force field of a kind.

"Okay," Clara said. "What's happening? Is that supposed to be happening?"

"Doesn't look like it, Clara!" Katerina said as Merry began to scream.

"Help! Help me!" She screamed as she struggled.

"Why is no one helping her?" Clara asked.

"Doctor, I don't think this was a part of the program!" Katerina said. The Doctor leaped up as Clara turned around to talk to the person behind her. Katerina wasted no time in getting up to follow behind him. She thought that he was going after Merry, but he simply exited the stadium. Katerina's stomach dropped.

"What are you doing?" She asked him.

"Why are we walking away?" Clara's voice came out, and Katerina turned around to see the short brunette following behind them.

"We can't just leave her there!" Katerina said as the Doctor kept walking. "This is my fault, I talked her into doing it!"

"It's my fault too!" Clara said. "I helped just as much as Katerina did."

"Clara said that we go through time and space and help people. You're breaking your own philosphy by leaving her back there!" Katerina exploded. It felt like she was leaving Nikolina or Nikolai behind.

"Listen," he said, turning around to go face to face with her. "There's one thing you need to know about time traveling with me, well, one thing, apart from the blue box and the two hearts, we don't walk away," he said, before he turned around to start walking again.

A smile on her face grew as she watched the Doctor walk, but the smile quickly disappeared as something dawned on her.

"Wait, you have how many hearts?" She called after him as she ran.

* * *

Katerina and Clara followed the Doctor back to Dor'een's stall, where he started barking to her.

"Okay, I am so sick of people not speaking English!" Katerina said. "Start speaking normally or I'll go into that blue box and never come back out."

Ignoring her, the Doctor turned around and walked back to them. "I need something precious."

"You must have something," Clara insisted. "All the places you've seen there must be _something_."

The Doctor pulled out the same wand with the green tip from before. "Just this, but I need it, it comes in handy."

"One thousand years and that's it? Your spanner?" Clara asked.

"It's a screwdriver," the Doctor said.

"What kind of screwdriver is _that_?" Katerina asked.

Clara looked at him before looking down at her hand, fiddling with a ring on her finger. "It's my mum's," She said, looking at Katerina and the Doctor.

Without a second's hestiation, Clara pulled her ring out and held it out towards Dor'een. She took it, examined the sentimental value, and then gestured to the moped behind her.

The Doctor tapped Clara's head, and Katerina could only look at Clara in a bit of impression.

"What?" Clara asked.

"That was the bravest thing I've ever seen," Katerina said. She knew the signs of a person who lost a parent, she should know, she lost one herself. And the look on Clara's face when she looked down at her ring after she said it was her mother's confirmed Katerina's thoughts that it was her mother that passed.

Clara didn't say anything as the three of them got on the bike, the Doctor in front, Clara after him, and Katerina after her. The Doctor turned the moped on, and the second they took off, the force of the speed of the air made Katerina's hat fly right off of her head.

"Oh! No!" Katerina said, reaching down towards it. She growled, wrapping her arm back around Clara. "I am never wearing a hat ever again."

They sped past asteroids and large pieces of rock flying off of them. Merry was still being pulled towards the pyramid.

"Merry!" Katerina called after her. Clara climbed on top of the Doctor's back, and Katerina carefully shifted herself up on Clara's back. She reached for Merry, and Katerina's hand just touched Merry's when the force field violently pulled her back quickly, pulling her all the way back into the pyramid.

"No!" Katerina cried, and that's when she realized that the force and the speed the Doctor was forced to go at was making them head for the wall at warp speed.

"Brakes! Brakes!" Clara screamed.

"This is not the way I thought I'd die!" Katerina screamed.

"No one is dying!" the Doctor said as he turned the moped to the side. It began skidding into the small landing, and the trio screamed as the moped made contact with the ground. It only lasted a few seconds, and they came to a complete stop. With a sigh, Katerina climbed off of Clara and off of the moped.

"Okay," the Doctor gasped. "Time to let go."

"I can't!" Clara cried, burying her head into the Doctor's back, desperately clinging to him.

"Stop being dramatic!" Katerina grumbled to herself as the Doctor explained to Clara that he couldn't breathe.

The Doctor and Clara got off of the moped and Katerina followed the Doctor as he ran up to the door, pulling out his screwdriver and pressing a button, making the end glow and the wand to make a sound.

"What does the screwdriver even do?" Katerina asked.

"Everything," the Doctor said as he inspected it. "Oh, interesting! A frequency modulated acoustic lock. The key changes ten million, zillion, squillion times a second."

Katerina looked at him blankly. "I'm sorry, I _know_ you were talking, but all I heard was a rushing sound in my ears because of how fast you were going," She said. "Can you get into it?"

"Technically, no," the Doctor said. "In reality, also no. But still...let's give it a stab!"

Before Katerina could say anything, the Doctor went charging at the doors, banging himself against it. Clara squealed and covered her eyes when he fell back on the ground. He turned around, and clicked a button on his screwdriver again, and traced the door. When that didn't work, the Doctor actually knocked on the door.

"Oh yeah, I'm sure they'll open the door and roll out the welcome matt for you!" Katerina said sarcastically.

"How can they just stand there and watch?" Clara asked.

The Doctor sighed. "Because this is sacred ground."

"But she's just a kid!" Katerina protested. She saw her siblings in the little girl, and wanted, no, _needed_ to help her.

The Doctor stepped backwards, pointing his screwdriver at the door as he did so. "I don't...I can't...it..."

A piercing scream suddenly erupted from the other side of the door. "Merry!" Katerina yelled after her as she recognized the sound of the child's voice. She couldn't help but run over to the door and try body checking it. "Merry! It'll be okay, I promised! I promised you it would!" Katerina tried to assure her.

"Doctor?" Clara asked, wondering what the situation was at the moment.

"Yes, yes, yes yes yes," He said. "Oh hello!" He said, looking at his screwdriver.

"Hello what?" Clara asked.

"The sonic's locked on to the acoustic tumblers!" the Doctor said excitedly.

"English!" Katerina said, an exasperated sigh exhaling from her nose.

"Right," the Doctor said. "Basically, what I'm saying is, I get to do _this_!"

Aiming the screwdriver at the door, he pressed the button on the sonic screwdriver and the door began to lift. Katerina started smiling as she ducked down to see it open. The Doctor's hands began to shake as the door went higher up, but he eventually managed to get it open.

Katerina peered in and saw a man kneeling in front of a god-like statue surrounded by a box. Looking over, she saw someone else...

"Nikolina!" Katerina cried, smiling like crazy at her little sister. But how did she get here?

"Who's Nikolina?" Clara asked, and Katerina looked from Clara back to Nikolina.

"She's-" Katerina started, but when she looked back, it was Merry. It had been Merry the whole time. "No one," Katerina said.

"I'm the Doctor!" the Doctor introduced. "You've met Katerina and Clara! They were supposed to be having a nice day out," the Doctor let go of the door, and it came down an inch, making the three of them instinctively duck down. The Doctor reached back up and aimed the screwdriver at the door to do the same thing he was doing before to keep the door up. "Still, it's early yet. Are you coming then? Did I mention that the door is immensely heavy?"

"Leave!" Merry said, nervously glancing behind her. "You'll wake him!"

"Really, quite, extraordinarily heavy," the Doctor said, and unexpectedly dropped to his knees, making Katerina and Clara bend so that they're at his level too.

"Doctor!" Katerina found herself calling worriedly.

"Katerina!" the Doctor said, glancing over at her, and the look clearly said, 'take care of it'.

"On it, boss," Katerina said as she and Clara ran inside.

The man sitting in front of the statue thing was still chanting as Katerina and Clara passed by him. Katerina stopped behind him, so that they didn't pass him. "Merry, we have to go," Katerina said, extending her hand.

"We are not leaving here without you," Katerina told Merry.

"You said I wouldn't get it wrong!" Merry protested. "And then I got it wrong! And now this has happened, look what's happened!"

"You didn't get it wrong!" Katerina defended.

"How do you know?" Merry asked. "You don't know anything! You have to go now, or he'll eat us all!"

"Listen, as long as I'm around, _no one _is getting eaten, okay?" Katerina said.

"Plus, he's ugly," Clara added. "But, you know, to be honest," She said, running over to the statue. "I don't think he looks big enough."

"Not our meat. Our souls," Merry said worriedly.

Clara looked over to Katerina, silently asking for help. Katerina begins walking over as Clara extended a hand towards Merry.

Merry put a finger on each temple, and a large purple vein popped up on her forehead as she scrunched her eyebrows in concentration. Katerina was confused at what was going on for about one second until she saw Clara being pushed up against the glass with the man inside as she screamed.

"Merry, no! Stop!" Katerina said. She was about to touch Merry's shoulder when she began to feel a pulsing pain course through her stomach. She yelled in pain, bended over, and felt herself fall to the ground. Tears sprung, and the pain quickly subsided. However, it was enough to keep Katerina winded and not to have enough energy to stand up.

"Katerina? You okay?" the Doctor asked.

"Yeah," She groaned, putting a hand to her stomach, and awkwardly shifting to the side so that she was doing a sideways plank with her arm. "Merry, stop this. What's wrong? What's going on?"

Slowly, Merry lowered her hands and looked from Clara to Katerina. "It doesn't want you, either of you. It wants me. If you don't leave, he'll eat you up too."

"Yes, and you don't want that, do you?" the Doctor asked, and Merry turned around to listen to him. "You want us to walk out of this really quite astonishingly heavy door and never come back."

"Yes," Merry said, glad that someone finally understood.

"I see, right," the Doctor said. "Right. Katerina and Clara are right. Absolutely never going to happen." Taking a chance, the Doctor stopped pressing the button to keep the door up, and bent and rolled to get himself out of the way before the door could crush him.

"What did you _just do_?" Katerina asked the Doctor as he stood up.

"Did you just lock us in?" Clara asked, closing her eyes to try and keep herself calm.

"Yup," he said.

"You did hear the part about him being a soul eating monster, right?" Katerina asked.

"Yup," he said again.

"You are going to get me killed," Katerina said, leaning her head back. "I wish I was home right now."

"Wouldn't be the first time," the Doctor commented.

"Is there a way out?" Clara asked from her spot on the glass box.

"What? Before it eats our souls?" the Doctor asked as he made his way over to Katerina.

"Ideally, yes," Clara said as the Doctor gently bent down to Katerina's level. "Are you okay to stand up?" He asked.

"Yeah," Katerina said, and moved to stand up, but she was having a hard time, so the Doctor gently reached under Katerina's arms, and said, "On three?"

Even though she was a bit uncomfortable, she still needed to stand up, so she nodded. "Yeah."

"One," he started, getting his legs ready. "Two," He said, getting his arms ready, and Katerina steeled herself for the pain. "Three!" At the final number, the Doctor lifted Katerina up, who had to surpress her screams. When she was standing, she just had to get used to her legs for a couple seconds and she was fine. "Thank you," She said to him, before turning to Merry and Clara, avoiding his gaze.

"Doctor," Clara started as she watched the Doctor turn to the man on the floor. "Why is he still singing?"

"Doesn't exactly have an 'off' switch," Katerina says.

The Doctor crouches in front of the man, and Katerina backs up a bit so that she's standing next to Merry, ready to run if they have to. "He's trying to sing the Old God back to sleep, but that's not going to happen. He's waking up, mate. He's coming, ready or not. You want to run."

After the Doctor stopped talking, the man stopped singing. "That's it, then. Song's over," the Doctor said.

"The song is over," the man said, standing up. "My name is Chorister Rezh Baphix, and the Long Song," Rezh pulled the sleeve of his left arm up, and pressed a button on a bracelet that was revealed there. "Ended with me." After he does it, he disappears. Into thin air.

"That's it, then. Song's over," the Doctor said, and at the last second he whips out his screwdriver and presses the button, pointing it towards the man in the box, who roars.

The roar makes Merry scream, and Katerina didn't even think as she did it; she grabbed the girl by the arms and pulled her right into her chest, holding her close. "What is that?" Katerina asked.

"Ah ha!" the Doctor said, running to press his face to the glass. "Look at that."

"You've woken him," Merry said, her tone very clear that she was scared, and Katerina automatically pulled her closer.

"I think he knows what he's doing," Katerina tries to reassure Merry, but Merry has a look on her face that shows that she didn't believe her. "Oh, who am I kidding? The man's a lunatic!"

"It's awake? What's it doing?" a wide eyed Clara asked, still pushed up against the glass as the monster wacked against the glass.

"Oh, you know. Having a nice stretch," the Doctor said.

"No time to be sarcastic!" Katerina said from her spot a good distance away from the very _glass_ box.

"No, we didn't wake him. And you didn't wake him, either," the Doctor said, pointing at Merry. "He's waking because it's his time to wake, and feed. On you, apparently," He said, pointing at Merry. "On your stories."

"She said souls, not stories, and he's not feeding on anything," Katerina said, keeping one arm around Merry.

"Same thing," the Doctor said. "The soul's made of stories, not atoms. Everything that ever happened to us. People we love, people we lost. People we found again against all the odds. He threatens to wake, they offer him a pure soul. The soul of the Queen of Years."

When the Doctor said 'the Queen of Years', Merry stepped back and shrank into herself.

"Knock it off spaceboy, you're scaring her," Katerina said, following Merry and wrapping her into another hug, one that Merry stepped out of this time.

"Good. She should be scared. She's sacrificing herself. She should know what that means," the Doctor said, and he started walking towards them. "Do you know what it means, Merry?"

"A god chose me!" Merry said.

"It's not a god. It'll feed on your soul, but that doesn't make it a god," the Doctor turned and pointed towards the monster, who was snarling and banging against the glass, which Clara was still against.

"It is a vampire, and you don't need to give yourself to it. Hey, do you mind if I tell you a story?" He asked, rubbing his hands together, something that Katerina had picked up on. "One you might not have heard. All the elements in your body were forged many, many millions of years ago, in the heart of a far away star that exploded and died," he started, crouching down so that he was balancing his weight on the balls of his feet, but Merry was more into paying attention to the creature that was repeatedly lunging towards them. "That explosion scattered those elements across the desolations of deep space. After so, so many millions of years, these elements came together to form new stars and new planets. And on and on it went. The elements came together and burst apart, forming shoes and ships and sealing wax, and cabbages and kings," the Doctor stood up, and circled around Merry so that he was standing behind her, putting his hands on her shoulders. "Until eventually, they came together to make you. You are unique in the universe. There is only one Merry Gejeluh. And there will never be another." Katerina couldn't help but smile at the encouraging words that the Doctor was giving Merry. She felt a drop on her hand, and was surprised to see that she was crying. She quickly wiped her tears away so that no one would have noticed them as the Doctor and Merry walked toward the beast in the cage. "Getting rid of that existence isn't a sacrifice. It is a waste," the Doctor finished, pointing at the monster.

"So, if I don't, then everyone else..." Merry trailed off.

"Will be fine," the Doctor finished for her.

"How?" She asked with a quick glance at the monster.

"Well, Merry Gejeluh," Katerina said, walking up so that she was standing next to the Doctor. "Where I come from, there's this saying. 'Where there's a will, there's a way'."

"And I always find a way," the Doctor added.

"You promise?" She asked him.

With a nod, the Doctor says, "Cross my hearts," As he literally crosses both his hearts, and gently touches Merry's face. The Doctor offers her his hand, and cautiously, she takes it. Merry looks over at Katerina, and she nods in confirmation. Based on what she has seen so far, she had a good opinion in mind of the Doctor. Not that she'd ever trust him herself, though.

Looking back towards Clara, Merry releases her binds. Just as Clara begins to enjoy her freedom, the alien had finally managed to crack a hole in the glass right where Clara's head was.

Katerina runs over to Clara, grabbing her hand. "And that is our cue to leave!"

The four of them move to run, but there was a sudden rumbling sound as the ground shook. Clara releases Katerina's hand, and she turned back around. "Something's coming," Clara said.

"Again, our cue to leave!" Katerina stated.

"The Vigil," Merry informed them.

"And what's the Vigil?" the Doctor further interrogated.

"If the Queen of Years is unwilling to be feasted upon," Merry began in a shaky voice.

"Yes?" the Doctor pressed.

"It's their job to feed her to Grandfather," Merry finished.

"That just made things a lot harder," Katerina commented.

A puff of black smoke erupts from in front of the cage, and in it's place when it disappears are the three robotic beings.

The Doctor took his screwdriver out as he observed the robots.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry," Merry began apologising.

"Over my dead body," Katerina said, reaching back to clasp Merry's hand protectively.

"I hope for no dead bodies," the Doctor said. "But, yeah, stay back. I'm armed. With a screwdriver," he said, pointing the screwdriver at the robots.

"You're going to go up against robots with a _screwdriver_?" Katerina asks through gritted teeth. _This man is out of his mind!_ She thought to herself.

The Vigil standing in the front sends out an acoustic blast that knocks the screwdriver out of the Doctor's hand, then another that sends him somersaulting backwards.

"Doctor!" Katerina cried after him as she, Merry, and Clara backed up. The Vigil on the right side sends out another blast that sends Clara flying to the wall on the other side.

"Clara!" Katerina called after her, and finally, the Vigil on the left blasted out a blast towards Katerina. Taking her hand out of Merry's grasp, she threw her in the opposite direction as the blast hit her square in the chest, sending her backwards and slamming her against the wall.

It was even worse pain than when she was hit by Merry, and for a minute all she could see was black. But her subconscious mind began fighting to wake up, and she lulled her head to the side as her eyes opened slightly. She looked over to see Clara and the Doctor, but they were still knocked out. Katerina looked to find Merry, and saw her standing at the front with the Vigils.

That's when Katerina began fighting every sense in her body to get herself up. Maybe if she could stall them somehow, Merry could get away, or at least away from the Vigils and the alien.

"Clara," Katerina heard, and she turned her head to see the Doctor was awake, as well as Clara. "Sonic," He said, and using all her strength, Clara got up and ran to the corner where his screwdriver was thrown. She grabbed it, and threw it towards the Doctorm who caught it easily.

Flipping on his stomach, the Doctor used the power of the sonic and pointed it at the Vigil's, who turned around and tried using their powers against the Doctor, but they were being stopped by some force field, and it took Katerina a minute to realize that it was the screwdriver creating it.

It was enough of a time window for Merry to hop off of the platform and run right back into Katerina's arms. The Doctor groaned at the pressure of the screwdriver against the vigil.

Clara turns Merry towards her, gently grabbing her arms. "You know all the stories. You must know if there's another way out."

"There's a tale. A secret song. The Thief of the Temple and the Nimmer's Door," She quickly says.

"And that song would open the door?" Katerina asked, bending down so that she was at head level with Merry, who nodded. "Okay, how does it go? Do you know it, can you sing it?" Katerina asked, her questions coming out in a blur just like...

_Ooh_, Katerina winced. _Just like the Doctor._

Turning, Merry begins to sing a series of notes, and a door slides up in the wall just beyond the Vigils and the creature.

The Doctor glanced over at the door, and then back to the three girls. "Go!"

Not wasting any time, Clara and Merry begin to make a run for it. However, Katerina hesitated.

"Come on, Katerina!" Clara called after her.

Katerina looked back to the Doctor, who was struggling with the weight. The Doctor just helped save Merry, and save Katerina. Now it was Katerina's turn to help.

She waved them off. "Go! I'll be there!"

Reluctantly, Clara and Merry ran for the door as Katerina ran back to the Doctor. She put her arms around him, and grabbed his hands where he was holding the screwdriver.

The Doctor looked over to her in surprise. This was probably the first time that day that Katerina willingly helped the Doctor without criticizing him.

Katerina just gave him a small smile as she firmly grasped the sonic screwdriver as best as she could. She didn't really know how it worked, but the Doctor made it look like he just concentrated really hard and then it did stuff, so Katerina concentrated as hard as she could. She put her worry for Merry into the power, her anger at the Vigils, her wariness of the Doctor while wanting to help him, everything that she was feeling that day into that one power surge.

Eventually, Katerina and the Doctor were about to temporarily break the force field which gave them enough opportunity to run while the Vigils were distracted.

"Doctor! Katerina!" Clara's voice rang out, and the Doctor and Katerina quickly managed to get back to where they had first come in. Katerina ran right for Merry, and the Doctor turned around to find that the Vigils had followed them and were back again, and soon enough, he was pointing the screwdriver at them again.

There was a soft whisper of a voice, that made Katerina, Clara, and Merry so scared that the three of them managed to wrap around each other.

"Where are you? Where are you?" It said.

"What was that?" Katerina asked, looking around at the space around her.

Just as Katerina finished her sentence, the Vigils disappeared, and the four of them all relaxed.

"Where did they go?" Clara asked.

"Grandfather's awake. They're of no function any more," the Doctor said.

"Well, you could sound happier about it," Clara commented.

"Actually, I think I may have made a bit of a tactical boo-boo," He let slip. "More of a semantics mix-up, really."

"'Boo-boo?'" Katerina repeated. "What do you mean? You're speaking like a two year old."

"I thought the Old God was Grandfather, but it wasn't. It was just Grandfather's alarm clock," the Doctor said.

Katerina and Clara exchange confused looks. "Why do you always talk to us like we're on your level of thinking?" Katerina said.

"What Katerina means to say is, we're a bit lost," Clara said, rewording what Katerina said to sound nicer. "Who's the Old God? _Is _there an Old God?"

"Unfortunately, yes," the Doctor said. As he said this, the sun started getting brighter, and somehow, bigger. That, or Katerina was shrinking to the ground in fear. Most likely the latter.

"Oh, my stars," Clara said worriedly. "What do we do?"

"Against that?" the Doctor asked. "I don't know. Do you know? I don't know. Any ideas?" he asked, opening the floor.

"But you promised," Merry insisted, looking up at the Doctor. "You promised!"

"I did. I did promise," the Doctor reminded her.

"He'll eat us all," Merry said, starting to panic. "He'll spread across the system, consuming the Seven Worlds. And when there's no more to eat, he'll embark on a new odyssey among the stars."

"I say leg it," Clara gave.

"Leg it where, exactly?" the Doctor asked.

"Don't know. Lake District?" Clara asked, and Katerina could only look at them in confusion. Was she the only one that was aware that there was a big, Grandfather thing that was going to eat the entirety of the Seven Worlds?

"Oh, the Lake District's lovely," the Doctor said. "Let's definitely go there. We can eat scones. They do great scones in 1927," He finished, and seemed to have trailed off, looking at the sun. Katerina follow his gaze, and couldn't believe her eyes. The sun had a sort of sinister look on it's face, if that was even possible.

"You're going to fight it, aren't you," Clara said, not even a question. She knew as well as the Doctor that he was going to do it.

"Regrettably, yes. I think I may be about to do that," the Doctor sighed.

"It's really big," Clara pointed out.

"I've seen bigger."

"Really?" She asked.

"Are you joking? It's _massive_," the Doctor said, gesturing towards it.

"I'm staying with you," Clara said, suddenly determined.

"No, you're not," the Doctor immediately said.

"Yes, I am. I can assist," Clara tried again.

"No, you can't," the Doctor said.

"If you're not taking her, I'm coming," Katerina said before she could stop herself. Too late to take it back.

"No, you're not either," the Doctor said firmly.

"What happened to the mighty bull talk about not walking away?" Katerina asked, and Clara nodded in agreement.

"No. We don't walk away. But when we're holding on to something

precious, we run. We run and run as fast as we can and we don't stop running until we are out from under the shadow," He said, his face going serious. Then he went back to his usual manner. "Now, off you pop. Take the moped. I'll walk."

Katerina walked over to him so that she was standing in front of him. "Listen here, Bowtie Boy," She grabbed his bowtie and pulled him forward, so that his face was close to hers. "You might be able to keep Preppy McHelpy from helping you, but you're just one man. You can't possibly do everything by yourself," She said, releasing his bowtie. She pushed him back and straightened it as she said, "Besides, I am _not_ a 'sit in the sidelines' type of girl."

The Doctor smiled proudly at her. This might not be the Katerina he knows, but it's still his Katerina. "No, you're certainly not."

"Wait, you're letting Katerina go?" Clara asked.

"We've been through so much more, apparently," Katerina said, turning to face Clara. "Now we can sit here and talk about it till next Sunday or we can go stop a sun from eating millions of people."

Still not liking the idea, Clara turned so that she could leave with Merry, but before they left, Merry went over to Katerina and gave her a big hug.

"Be careful," She whispered.

Katerina smiled at the little girl and wrapped her arms around her quickly. "Don't you worry about me, kid," She removed her arms, and bent down to her level. "Go with Clara, she'll keep you safe."

Merry nodded, and went over to Clara. The two of them gave Katerina and the Doctor one last look before leaving to get the stadium.

Katerina turned to face the Doctor, and he was still looking at her in awe. "Please tell me you have an idea," She says.

The Doctor smiles, shaking his. "Not one."

Sighing, Katerina smoothed down her skirt as she said, "Didn't think so."

* * *

Katerina and the Doctor turned to face the big sun, with the sinister smile. They stood in silence for a second, trying to think of an idea. Then came a beautiful, vocalization of Merry, who was singing to awaken the sun.

The Doctor and Katerina turn around towards the direction of the voice, and exchange looks with each other as the Doctor turned back to face the orange thing in the sky. 'Okay, then. That's what I'll do. I'll tell you a story."

Clearer, Katerina could hear the voices of all the people in the stadium. "Please, wake up. And let the cloak of life cling to your bones," they sang.

"Can you hear them?" the Doctor asked. "All these people who've lived in terror of you and your judgement? All these people whose ancestors devoted themselves, sacrificed themselves, to you. Can you hear them singing? Oh, you like to thing you're a god. But you're not a god. You're just a parasite eaten out with jealousy and envy and longing for the lives of others. You feed on them. On the memory of love and loss and birth and death and joy and sorrow," the Doctor said, his voice going higher and higher. He calmed himself down, and said, "So, come on, then. Take mine. Take my memories."

"What?" Katerina asked the Doctor, but he wasn't listening to her. A tendril of light from the sun makes its way over to the Doctor.

"But I hope you've got a big appetite, because I have-" He flinched mid sentence as the tendril struck him. "Lived a long life," Another strike. "And I have seen a few things."

"I walked away from the last Great Time War." Time war? Katerina needed to do her research. "I marked the passing of the Time Lords. I saw the birth of the universe and I watched as time ran out, moment by moment, until nothing remained. No time. No space. Just me," He continued, his voice thick with so much emotion that tears began trickling at Katerina's eyes and she didn't try blinking them away.

"I walked in universes where the laws of physics were devised by the mind of a mad man. I've watched universes freeze and creations burn," He said, tears slippin down his face. Katerina fought the urge to run up to him and wipe them right off of his face, because she couldn't stand seeing someone, anyone, in that much pain. But she just stood there, as if her feet didn't work, crying tears of her own at the Doctor's emotional performance. "I've seen things you wouldn't believe. I have lost things you will never understand. And I know things. Secrets that must never be told. Knowledge that must never be spoken. Knowledge that will make parasite gods blaze. So come on, then," He widened his arms. "Take it! Take it all, baby! Have it! You have it all!"

The sun grew darker as the tendrils withdrawed. The Doctor hung his head, as if all of the energy was gone from him.

Katerina couldn't believe her ears. In her mind, memories were the most important thing a person could have. Why would he give them up willingly?

_Because that's just the person that the Doctor is_, Katerina thought to herself. She'd only known the man a day, but in this moment, she felt like she knew him a lifetime. The Doctor had lost people, just like everybody does. But he lost so much more people than a single person could. He's saved them all at Akhaten, and Clara had said that saving people was what her and the Doctor did. But had anybody actually sacrificed themselves for the Doctor? He was always the one to save people, to give stuff up. He did it, for the sake of saving people. It was time that somebody did it for him.

"Stop! Stop!" Katerina said, pushing the Doctor out of the way of the sun.

"What are you doing?" He asks Katerina, falling to his knees, partly because he was out of energy and partly because she pushed him.

She turns to face him, tears running down her face. "There is no reason for you to always give." She turns back to face the sun. "You want a meal, you great, big, stupid thing?" She asked. "I'll give you a meal!"

Katerina reached under the shirt part of her dress, revealing the pendant that her grandfather gave her. She ripped it off, not caring that she just broke the chain. She held it up by the top of the chain to the sun.

The Doctor noticed what she was trying to do and started shaking his head. "No, Katerina, no!"

"This necklace," She started, ignoring him. "Has been passed down to me, Katerina Draganova, from my grandfather, Grigor Draganov. It has been in my family for seven generations. It is passed down when the grandparent turns 60. Seven generations, four hundred and twenty years. Four hundred and twenty years of memories. Happiness, sadness, anger, love." More tears flooded Katerina's eyes, making her vision blurry. "I know it's no, 'watching the creation of the universe', but it's better than nothing, and it's better than watching a man who gives up everything all the time give up the most precious thing in the world. Memories."

The same tendril as before started approaching Katerina's necklace, wrapping itself around it. The Doctor watched as Katerina looked at the tendril surrounding the necklace. "Take it. Take all the memories, you big, stupid beast."

The necklace dissolves into thin air, gone. Forever.

Katerina takes a deep breath in, hoping to help stop herself from crying. She sinks down on her knees, trying to control her grief. She just lost a part of her grandfather, a part of herself. And for what? Pretty much nothing. But Katerina took a risk, and she was proud of herself for it. She was now on the same level as the Doctor, who was watching her in awe. "You know that you didn't really help, don't you?"

To his surprise, Katerina gave a watery smile. "I know. But if I helped feed it's belly, maybe our losses wouldn't be so great."

The sound of footsteps alerted Katerina and the Doctor that someone was coming. They looked over, and saw Clara run in, a book in her hand. She was alarmed at the sight of the two of them on the ground, but when she saw that they were fine, she turned back to the sun, who's face had returned.

Clutching the book to her chest, Clara said, "Still hungry?"

Opening the book, she said, "Well, I brought something for you."

From where she was sitting, Katerina couldn't see what was inside the book, but Clara picked up what it was, she got a better view. It was a brown-orange leaf, one that you would find around fall. The Doctor lifted his head to face Clara, and she continued talking. "This. The most important leaf in human history," A smile grew on her face, but behind it, Katerina knew was pain. "_The _most important leaf in human history."

The sun sinisterly smiles, and Katerina had to fight the urge to smack it off, since it wasn't physically possible.

"It's full of stories, full of history," Clara said. "And full of a future that never got lived. Days that should have been that never were. Passed on to me." Clara held it out even more for the energy tendril that was approaching it to take.

"This leaf isn't just the past, it's a whole future that never happened," She explained. "There are billions and millions of unlived days for every day we live. An infinity. All the days that never came. And these are all my mum's."

By that time, Katerina and the Doctor had stood up, the Doctor on one side of Clara, Katerina on the other. Katerina looked over to Clara, smiling at the brave girl. Clara was braver than Katerina could ever comprehend.

"Well, come on then. Eat up!" the Doctor said. As it consumed more of the leaf, the face started frowning. "Are you full? I expect so, because there's quite a difference, isn't there, between what was and what should have been. There's an awful lot of one, but there's an infinity of the other," He finished.

Katerina looks away from the sun back to the leaf, but it wasn't there anymore. It had dissolved into enery for the sun.

"And infinity's too much, even for your appetite," the Doctor stated.

Katerina looked over to Clara, who had also lost a lot that day, and saw that despite the tears in her eyes, there was a smile on her face. She reached over and grabbed Clara's hand, giving it a squeeze.

The other brunette looked over at Katerina in surprise. "What happened to your rule?"

"Temporarily banned," Katerina said with a smile. She could relate to Clara, as they had both suffered losses that day.

The Doctor, Clara, and Katerina all watched as the orange sun shrunk into itself, disappearing.

The Old God was no more.

* * *

After saying all their goodbyes, the trio made their way back to the TARDIS, where Clara had requested to be taken home. So about ten minutes later, they were back at the same house, on the same street that they had started their journey at.

"Home again, home again, jiggity jig," the Doctor said as he flipped a final switch on the TARDIS console.

"Please never say that again," Katerina, who was standing next to him, said, crossing her arms.

The Doctor gave her a look that clearly showed that he was offended, so Katerina said, "Be glad I said _please_."

"And she's back!" the Doctor said, reffering to Katerina's attitude.

Clara goes over to the door and opens it. "It looks different," she commented.

"Nope. Same house, same city, same planet," the Doctor said, walking around so that he was in front of the part of the console across from the doors. His eyes lit up as he reviewd a monitor. "Hey! Same day, actually. Not bad." He mimed a golf movement. "Hole in one."

Katerina pretended to look off into the distance. "You missed."

The Doctor was about to argue that he didn't when Clara's voice stopped him. "You were there," She said. "At mum's grave. You were watching." The Doctor turned around to face Clara as she asked, "What were you doing there?"

"Being creepy?" Katerina suggested. She hadn't felt weirder in her life, though it was second hand.

"I don't know. I was just making sure," he said, fiddling with some controls.

"Of what?" Clara asked.

"You remind me of someone," the Doctor said, walking up so that he was standing closer to Clara.

"Who?" She asked.

"Someone who died," the Doctor said.

"Well, whoever she was, I'm not her, okay? If you want me to travel with you, that's fine. But as _me_. I'm not a bargain basement stand-in for someone else. I'm not going to compete with a ghost," Clara said, and the whole while for the end bit the Doctor was shaking his head.

"No," the Doctor said. He reached into his pocket, and pulled something out. Closer inspection by Katerina revealed it to be Clara's ring that she gave to Dor'een. "They wanted you to have it," the Doctor explained.

"Who did?" Clara asked.

"Everyone. All the people you saved," the Doctor said, and Clara picked her ring up. She put it to her lips and gave it a sweet kiss, something that made Katerina smile. She was happy that Clara got something back, especially after what she gave up. It was more valuable than what Katerina gave up, that was for sure.

Clara gave the Doctor a smile before she turned to Katerina. "I might not see you again for a while, so I wanted to ask you something." Clara glanced over at the Doctor before saying, "Girl to girl?"

The Doctor took the hint (after a couple of minutes of hard staring at him from Katerina and Clara) and quickly went off to another part of the TARDIS that wasn't too far from the console.

Katerina nodded for Clara to ask. "What is it?"

"When we got to Merry after taking the moped, you called her Nikolina," Clara said, and Katerina instantly felt uncomfortable and homesick. "Who's Nikolina? If you don't mind me asking?"

Katerina looked down at her hands, suddenly every interested in the lines of them. Clara immediately backed off. "I'm sorry for asking, I shouldn't have."

"It's okay," Katerina said, clasping her hands together before she looked up. "Nikolina is my little sister. She's around Merry's age, maybe a little older. And she and my brother, her twin, mean the world to me."

Clara smiled. "Is that why you were so desperate to protect Merry? Because she reminded her of your siblings?"

"Partly, yeah," Katerina admitted. "Mostly because she was a scared little girl, and if I were in her shoes, I'd want help from two pretty looking girls."

Katerina and Clara laughed, before it quickly died down. Clara looked down at her ring before looking back at Katerina. "I'm sorry about your necklace."

"How did you-" Katerina said, her hand immediately going to the spot where it used to sit.

"Because you weren't wearing it the first time we met, and you're not wearing it now," Clara said. "And giving it up to that sun, thing, is something that you would do."

"Well, the Girl who Impossibly knows everything," Katerina said, which made Clara smile. "Is there anything else?"

Clara shook her head. "No. I guess I'll see you when I do." She quickly leaned over before Katerina could protest and gave her a hug. With a sigh, she awkwardly patted Clara's back before pushing the woman off of her. "Baby steps, Clara."

"Right," she said. "Bye!" Clara waved, and was gone from the TARDIS.

"Girl time over?" the Doctor asked as he came back to the console room, his fingers in his ears.

"Yes, and wash your hands before you touch me," Katerina said.

"Oh, right!" the Doctor said, and reached into a pocket in his jacket, walking towards Katerina.

"What are you doing?" She asked him.

He pulled his hand out, and dropped something, but it didn't fall to the ground. It was a necklace, and the Doctor was holding it by it's chain. It was the red heart necklace that Katerina had noticed looked exactly like one her grandmother had.

"For you," He said, holding it out towards her.

"Where'd you get it from?" She asked, tears building up as she looked at it. It wasn't really her grandmother's, but it was the closest she was getting.

"From the market in Akhaten. It was the one-" He started, but Katerina cut him off.

"I know _where _you got it from," She said. "I meant, what thing sentimental did you trade it for? You said you didn't have anything but your wand thing."

"Sonic screwdriver," the Doctor couldn't help but correct. "And I didn't get it for you. "Someone at the market noticed you admiring it and after you left, bought it for you, then gave to me to give to you."

"Who?" She asked.

The Doctor shrugged. "Didn't know her. She just slipped it into my hand, saying that 'The girl deserves it'."

Katerina smiled, and as she reached towards it with her right hand, noticed that her ring began to glow.

"Why is it doing that?" Katerina asks, forgetting about the necklace and studying her hand.

"You're about to jump again," the Doctor said, lowering his hand.

"Jump? What does that mean?" She wondered.

"It means-" the Doctor started, but he stopped when he noticed the glowing starting to crawling down Katerina's legs and around her body. "Never mind what it means! I just need you to promise to trust me."

"How can I trust a man that I just met?" She questioned.

"You just have to!" the Doctor said. Katerina was now squinting through the brightness to try and focus on the Doctor's face. "Be care-"

But Katerina didn't hear him finish his sentence as she was struck with a violent pain that started in her lower abdomen that quickly moved throughout her body, and all she could see was brightness.

* * *

The first thing Katerina saw was two figures standing in front of something. The brightness completely disappeared when she landed on her feet, but her head was throbbing again, and she still wasn't used to the force of the jumps. The pain of what felt like someone poking needles into her brain and jelly legs combined is what sent Katerina falling for the floor.

"Oh, this better stop soon," She grumbled to herself as she clutched the sides of her head. She remembered this happening the first time she landed in the TARDIS, but the time she had the pain in her head was a bit shorter. It ended quick enough, though, and Katerina was able to focus on the two figures who had turned around to face her.

Katerina pushed herself up so that she was in a sitting position as she studied the faces. There was a man and a woman. The woman was shorter than the man, with blonde hair and blue eyes with a heart shaped face, and the man was tall, with brown hair, brown eyes, and a pinstriped suit, one that Katerina distinctly remembered.

The memory finally came back to her. These two people were frequents on her wall of pictures, the man more than the woman.

"Katerina! How nice of you to drop by," The man said.

_Now who are _these_ people_? Katerina thought to herself, letting out an exasperated breath.

* * *

**TBC...**

**Sorry this part came so late. I wrote up a bunch of the episode a couple days ago, but then my laptop battery died, and even though I saved it all, it had disappeared! So I had to rework all of it. But it's finished! So here it is.**

**I want to see who can guess which Doctor it is, which companion, and which episode it is. The Doctor and Companion are fairly obvious, though.**

**Oh, and I know that Katerina did a lot of the things that Clara did in the original episode, but I made her more of the prominent character because Katerina has been an older sibling longer than Clara's been a nanny, and I think that Katerina would have connected better with Merry, which I think she did. Don't worry, next episode, she is standing on her own. Oh,and don't expect her to like travelling with the Doctor any time soon. She might enjoy it from time to time, but she'll never truly love it because she isn't there willingly. Well, at least at first.**

**Katerina's outfit is staying the same for this episode and the next, because she came halfway through this adventure, but still, her outfits shall be on Polyvore!**

**REVIEW! FOLLOW! FAVOURITE! THANKS! STAY TUNED!**


	3. A Rose By Any Other Name

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Doctor Who! I just own my OC, "Katerina Draganova", and any other characters I make up on the way!

**Author's Note: **I'M BACK!

I'M BACK I'M BACK I'M BACK!

I am so sorry about the hiatus and thank you so much for supporting me during this time.

Not gonna keep you!

Thank you to everyone who's reviewed! Thanks!

* * *

**Enjoy!**

Cautiously, Katerina rose to her feet. "Who the hell are you? Where's the Doctor? Where am I?"

The man and the blonde exchanged glances. They both looked like they were expectant of that reaction, which confused Katerina. "What am I doing here? Why is no one answering my questions?"

The man looked over at her. "I _am_ the Doctor."

Katerina scoffs. "No, you're not."

"Yes, I am."

But he couldn't be the Doctor. This Doctor has ruffled brown hair, with the same chocolate brown eyes, and was taller than the Doctor she was with before. Okay, Katerina had to admit he was the smallest bit attractive. But she was only human! "The Doctor looks nothing like you! The Doctor looks-" Katerina was about to start talking about the Doctor when the man clamped her mouth shut.

"Hey!" Katerina shouted, though her voice came out muffled. She pushed the Doctor off of her. "Never do that again!"

"I'm sorry!" He said to her. "But I can't let you tell me anything about my future."

"What do you mean, _your _future?" Katerina asked, still very confused. "You're not the Doctor!"

"But I am someone you know, aren't I?" the Doctor asked.

Katerina thought back to her wall o' pics. This man and the blonde were definitely on it. "How do I know you're really the Doctor?"

"You're gonna have to trust me," he said.

"The Doctor said that the last time I saw him," Katerina couldn't help but say.

The man smiled. "Well, the Doctor is a very smart man."

Katerina couldn't help the giggle that escaped her. She quickly covered it up by turning to face the blonde girl. "What's your name?"

"Rose," She said.

"So, what are we doing here?" Katerina asked. This man claimed to be the Doctor, but here, Katerina didn't trust anybody but herself. She had started to trust Clara and the Doctor that she had seen, but she was very far from _trusting _them trusting them.

"We're investigating what's been going on in this hospital," the man-or, the Doctor, said. He waved her over to this monitor where Rose was standing, so she went over and stood next to them.

He looked over the figures on the monitor, but it looked like Greek to Katerina, and she couldn't care less. "No, nothing odd. Surgery, post-op, nano-dentistry. No sign of a shop. They should have a shop."

"No, it's missing something else," Rose said, leaning closer to the monitors. "When I was downstairs, those Nurse Cat Nuns were talking about Intensive Care."

"Wait, did you just say, 'Nurse Cat Nuns'?" Katerina asked. She didn't know why she was so surprised. She just came back from seeing an orange sun that ate her necklace.

"We'll fill you in later," the Doctor told her.

"Anyways," Rose said, bringing the attention back to her. "Where is it?"

"You're right. Well done," the Doctor told her.

"Why would they hide a whole department? It's got to be there somewhere. Search the sub-frame," Rose suggested.

"What if the sub-frame's locked?" the Doctor asked. He reached into his pocket, and pulled out a small wand, with a blue tip at the end.

"Try the installation protocol," Rose said, as the Doctor presses a button on his wand, placing it on a spot on the screen. It made the same noise as the Doctor's sonic whatever did, but it looked really different. Nevertheless, Katerina assumed it was the same thing.

"Yeah. Of course. Sorry. Hold on," the Doctor said, waving the sonic-_screwdriver?_- at the screen.

After he did so, the entire wall in front of them began lowering itself.

With a smirk on her face, Rose began walking towards the now revealed hallway. Katerina looked over at the Doctor, and they both had the same look on their faces. "Well, then," Katerina said.

"Intensive Care," the Doctor said, and he and Katerina began following Rose inside. "Certainly looks intensive."

"Nothing gets passed you, does it?" Katerina asked sarcastically.

They went down some stairs into a very sketchy looking basement, and Katerina wasn't so sure about being down there anymore. "Hey, I just remembered that I left the stove on!" Katerina said, turning around to run up the stairs, but the Doctor grabbed her arm and dragged her back

"Don't even think about it," he said as she stepped in front of him.

"Too late," Katerina grumbled, slumping her shoulders as she turned around.

They continued walking, and Katerina couldn't help but stare at the strange, green storage units. Katerina fought the urge to tap on the glass.

As it turned out, it looked like it was more a thousand of those storage units, but Katerina was probably just exaggerating. The Doctor went over and used his sonic screwdriver to unlock a door.

He opened it, and inside was a man, and the appearance almost made Katerina scream. The man was deathly ill, boils and red marks covering his skin. Katerina made the dumb mistake to lunge forward to help, but the Doctor grabbed her by the waist and held her back last minute. "Don't!"

She wanted to fight with him, but she didn't know if what the man had was contagious. It must be, if he was locked up in a container.

"That's disgusting," Rose commented. "What's wrong with him?"

"I'm sorry," the Doctor said to the man. "I am so sorry."

The man widened his eyes at the Doctor's words. He took one last pitiful look at the man, and shut the door, locking it once again.

He went on to the next person, who looked the exact same. "What is that?" Rose asked.

"All of them," he answered. "Every single disease in the galaxy. They've been infected with everything."

"The poor things," Katerina breathed. She couldn't imagine how painful that must be.

Rose widened her eyes. "What about us? Are we safe?"

"The air is sterile," the Doctor said, not taking his eyes off of the girl. "Just don't touch them," He finished as he shut the door.

The Doctor walked over to a railing, and Katerina and Rose followed him. "How many patients are here?" Katerina asked.

"They're not patients," the Doctor revealed.

"But they're sick," Rose said in a confused tone.

"They were _born_ sick," the Doctor explained. "They're meant to be sick. They exist to be sick. Lab rats. No wonder the Sisters have a cure for everything. They've built the ultimate research labratory. A human farm."

"That's horrible!" Katerina exclaimed, as they began walking down the row again. "Won't these people just _die_?"

"They're plague carriers. The last to go."

"It's for the greater good," A new voice said, and they all turned to the end of the row, where the voice came from. Katerina had to keep from gasping out loud at the face of cat, on a human body. So _that's_ what Rose was talking about.

"Novice Hame," the Doctor said coldly. "When you took your vows, did you agree with this?"

"They Sisterhood has sworn to help," She simply answered.

The Doctor and Katerina glared at her, the Doctor saying, "What, by killing?!"

"They're not real people," Novice Hame said in a calm voice. "They're specially grown. They have no proper existence."

"What the hell is this place?!" Katerina asked herself. What kind of place was she? And how was she supposed to get out?

"What's the turnover, hmm?" the Doctor went on, ignoring Katerina, walking toward Novice Hame, a very scary look on his face. "Thousand a day? Thousand the next, thousand the next? How many thousands, for how many years?" When she didn't answer, he screamed, "HOW MANY?!"

That made Katerina jump a bit. This Doctor was way more tempermental than the other Doctor she was with.

"Mankind needed us. They came to this planet with so many illnesses. We couldn't cope. We did...try. We tried using clone-meant and bio-cattle, but the results were too slow. So the Sisterhood grew its own flesh. That's all they are: flesh."

"They're _people,_" Katerina said angrily. This is no way human beings should be treated. "They're alive, they're breathing, does that tell you nothing?!"

"But think of those humans out there...healthy...happy, because of us," Novice Hame responded, still thinking that they were doing nothing wrong.

"If they live because of this, then life is worthless," the Doctor declared.

"But who are you to decide that?" Novice Hame demanded.

The Doctor took a step forward, a reserved look on his face. "I'm the Doctor. And if you don't like it, if you want to take it to a higher authority, then there isn't one. It stops with _me_."

Katerina couldn't help a teeny smile. That was really brave. Clara had been right when she said that this is the kind of thing that the Doctor and Katerina did all the time, even if Katerina hadn't experienced it all yet.

Rose leaned forward slightly. "Just to confirm, none of the humans in the city actually know about this?"

"We thought it best not-" She started, but the Doctor cut her off.

"Hold on. I can understand the bodies. I can understand your vows. One thing I can't understand-what have you done to Rose?"

That made Katerina's head snap towards said blonde. She looked perfectly normal to Katerina. Sure, she was showing a lot of cleavage, but Katerina just assumed that was how Rose liked to dress. But Katerina noticed that Rose had a sort of alarming look on her face for two seconds before it was quickly masked by a normal looking face.

And apparently Novice Hame was as clueless as Katerina and the Doctor. "I don't know what you mean."

"And I'm being very, very, calm," the Doctor said. "You want to be aware of that-very, very, calm. And the only reason I'm being so very, very calm is that the brain is a delicate thing. Whatever you've done with Rose's head, I want it reversed."

"We haven't done anything," Novice Hame insisted.

"I'm _perfectly_ fine," Rose said in a lazy voice.

"These people are dying," the Doctor went on, ignoring what Rose said. "And Rose would care."

With a defeated sigh, Rose rolled her eyes amd said, "Oh, all right, Clever Clogs."

The Doctor and Katerina turned around to face Rose as she kept talking. She went over to the Doctor and pulled his tie out. "Smarty pants." And in a particularly seductive voice, said, "Ladykiller."

"Oh, get a room," Katerina said as she crossed her arms.

The Doctor turned around and gave her a glare. "Could you be serious for two minutes?"

"I _could_," Katerina said, leaning forward on her heels. "But where would the fun be in that?"

The Doctor just rolled his eyes at her and turned back to Rose. "What's happened to you?" He asked.

"I knew something was going on in this hospital, but I needed this body and _your_ mind to find it out," She said.

"Who are you?" the Doctor asked, scrunching his eyebrows.

Rose leaned forward and whispered something in his ear that Katerina couldn't hear.

But Katerina _could_ hear when the Doctor said, in a very confused voice, "Cassandra?"

"Wait, so she's _not_ Rose?" Katerina asked, shaking her head.

"That's right darling," Rose-or Cassandra, said. "I'm so much better." She turned to the Doctor, pulled out a perfume bottle, and said, "Wake up and smell the perfume," Before spraying it in his face.

The Doctor immediately fell unconscious, and Katerina shouted, "Doctor, no!"

She didn't bother trying to catch him, instead running to disarm Cassandra. As soon as she got there though, Cassandra sprayed the same thing in her face, and Katerina accidently breathed it in. Soon enough, she felt the pull of unconsciousness, and all she saw was black as she went crashing to the ground.

* * *

When Katerina woke up, she found herself pressed against the Doctor. With a tiny yelp, she pushed herself as far away from him as she could. Eventually, she began shaking him to wake up. He wouldn't, and in the end, Katerina got fed up and slapped him across the face, which definitely woke him up.

"What was that for?!" He asked angrily.

"Apparently, you're a heavy sleeper," Katerina said. She began banging on the glass. "Hey! Someone let us out!"

"Aren't you lucky there was a spare?" Cassandra asked, walking up in front of the pod. "Well, sort of. I had to shove the both of you in there. Hope it's not too cramped."

"You've stolen Rose's body," the Doctor said.

"Gee, Doctor, _nothing_ gets by you, does it?" Katerina asked sarcastically.

"Over the years, I've thought of a thousand ways to kill you, Doctor, and your little friends Katerina and Rose," Cassandra said.

"But I've done nothing to you!" Katerina pointed out.

"Oh dear, I'm afraid she's already delusional," Cassandra said.

Katerina was about to say that she was innocent, when the Doctor grabbed on to her arm. She turned towards him, and he gave her a look that said, 'I'll explain it later', so she stopped.

"Anyways, that's exactly what I've got," Cassandra continued. "One thousand diseases. They pump the patients with a top-up every ten minutes. You, Rose, and Katerina have got-" She paused, checking her watch. "Three minutes left. Enjoy."

"Just let Rose go, Cassandra," the Doctor insisted.

"Rose? You are seriously worried about _Rose_ right now?" Katerina said in disbelief. "We're about to become lab rats!"

"She's got a point, but don't worry, I will! As soon as I find someone younger and...less common. Then I'll junk her with the waste," Cassandra said. "Now hush-a-bye, it's showtime!"

"Anything we can do to help?" A new voice said, and two more of the cat faced women began approaching Cassandra.

Cassandra didn't waste time making small talk. "Straight to the point, Whiskers. I want money."

"The Sisterhood is a charity, we don't give money," The one on the right said. "We only accept."

Cassandra glared at her. "The Humans across the water pay you a fortune, and that's exactly what I need. A one-off payment. That's all I want...oh, and perhaps a yacht." Then, she threw in a deal. "In return for which, I shall tell the City nothing of your institutional murder. Is that deal?"

Katerina couldn't see most of what was going on with the cat people, she mostly just heard their voices. "I'm afraid not."

"I'd advise you to think about his," Cassandra threatened.

"There's no need. I have to decline."

"I'll tell them!" Cassandra said, taking a new approach. "And you've got no way of stopping me! You're not exactly Nuns with Guns-you're not even armed."

"Who needs arms when we have claws?" Katerina heard.

"Well, nice try," Cassandra said. She spun around, and said, "Chip? Plan B!"

Katerina turned her head to face the Doctor. "Plan B?"

Katerina got her answer when the cell opened, and she and the Doctor crawled out. Only problem?

All other cells had been opened as well, releasing every single infected person.

"What have you done?" the Doctor shouted at Cassandra as Katerina subconsciously shrank towards him.

"Gave the system a shot of adrenaline, just to wake them up. See ya!" She said, and ran off, another person who Katerina could only assume to be Chip followed after her.

"Don't touch them!" the Doctor called out to us. "Whatever you do, don't touch! Katerina, come on!" He quickly grabbed Katerina's hand, and tugged her along as they ran after Cassandra and chip.

"Why do you always do so much running?" Katerina asked him breathlessly as they ran.

They actually managed to catch up with them just as Cassandra screamed bloody murder. Katerina could understand why she was screaming, because she was trying not to scream herself. As they ran past the rows of cells, they all began exploding. They came to a stop in front of the same railing they were at before, and to their horror, all of the cells in the entire building had been opened.

"What the hell have you done?" the Doctor asked Cassandra.

"It wasn't me!" She said.

"One touch, and you get every disease in the world," the Doctor explained. "And I want that body safe, Cassandra!"

"What about this body?" Katerina asked, gesturing to herself. "I didn't exactly sign up for this, you know!"

The Doctor just ignored her again, and Katerina was so close to punching him right in the face for it. "We've got to go down," He continued.

"But there's thousands of them!" Cassandra protested.

"Run!" He shouted, and Cassandra whimpered before she began running down the stairs, Chip behind her.

"Go!" He shouted at Katerina, and Katerina ran behind Chip as they went down the stairs.

"Down! Down! Go down!" He exclaimed as they raced down the stairs as fast as their legs could take them.

A PA system turned on, and Katerina heard, "This building is under quarantine. Repeat, this building is under quarantine. No one may leave the building. Repeat, no one may leave the premises."

Katerina made the mistake of looking behind her, and saw that the zombie people had caught up to them, their arms stretched out in front of them.

"Doctor!" Katerina screeched. This adventure was _way_ scarier than her first.

The Doctor looked behind them to see what Katerina was yelling at. His eyes widened in alarm as he turned his head around and shouted. "Keep moving! Go down!"

They finally made it down the final flight of stairs, and bursted through a door into a cellar. Cassandra immediately ran for the elevators. She frantically pressed the buttons to try and get it to work, but it was no use.

"No, the lifts have closed down," He told her. "That's the quarantine, nothing's moving."

"This way!" Cassandra screamed, running down the hallway, Katerina, the Doctor, and Chip following her.

The Doctor looked over his shoulder to see that Chip had gotten stuck as more infected people came pouring out from the converging corridors. Katerina noticed the Doctor not behind her, so she stopped and turned around to see him going towards Chip.

Katerina couldn't leave him behind either, and she ran to follow the Doctor. "Don't let them touch you!" the Doctor exclaimed as he began to run towards Chip, but Cassandra stopped him by grabbing his arm.

"Leave him! He's a clone thing, he's only got a half-life. Come on!" She said.

"Mistress," Chip cried pitifully, and Katerina's eyes filled with tears.

"Doctor, we can't leave him there!" Katerina cried, and she was actually going to take her chances when Cassandra started running again. The Doctor grabbed Katerina's arm before she could go after him.

He turned back to Chip. "I'm sorry, I can't let her escape!" His hand moved from Katerina's arm to her hand as she tugged her in the direction that Cassandra went.

"Doctor! If we leave him, he'll die!" She pointed out as they ran.

"Don't you think I know that?!" He asked angrily, and Katerina snatched her hand away from him, but continued running. She closed her eyes and tried to forget the sounds that Chip made as he wailed for Cassandra.

The three of them made it to a room, and the Doctor shut the door tightly behind them. There was another door at the other end, and Cassandra ran over to it. When she opened it, there was just more infected on the other side, and she shrieked before shutting it and locking it. She turned around to face Katerina and the Doctor as she cried, "We're trapped! What are we going to do?

"Well, for starters, you're going to leave that body," the Doctor said, walking so that he was standing in front of Cassandra. "That psychograft is banned on every civilized planet. You're compressing Rose to death."

Cassandra walked away from the Doctor as she said, "But I've got nowhere to go. My original skin is dead." She spun on her heels.

"Not my problem," the Doctor said smoothly. "You can float as atoms in the air. Now get out." The Doctor held out his sonic screwdriver in front of him menancingly. "Give her back to me."

"You asked for it," Cassandra said. She breathed out this pink like substance, and Katerina realized too late that it was coming towards her.

"No!" the Doctor shouted as Cassandra entered Katerina's body.

* * *

Cassandra settled into Katerina's body, and right away, Katerina began fighting to get out. "Oh, that is better," She said, smoothing the dress Katerina had been wearing down.

Rose, meanwhile, was rubbing her head, trying to get rid of the headache that she had.

The Doctor quickly checked to see if Rose was okay, before turning towards Cassandra now in Katerina's body. "That's not what I meant, Cassandra! Get out of Katerina!"

"But why would I want to?" Cassandra murmured, running her hands down from Katerina's chest to her stomach. "This body is much nicer than Rose's." She ran her hands through Katerina's hair as Rose gave her a clearly offended look. "Nice, soft hair." She stroked Kat's face. "Smooth cheeks." Her hands went back to Katerina's chest. "_Very_ nice chest." Cassandra looked back up at the Doctor. "How have you not jumped her bones yet?"

The Doctor's face went hot with a blush at the thought of him and Katerina, and then immediately growled at Cassandra, pointing the screwdriver back in her face. "I mean it, Cassandra! Out!"

Cassandra huffed. "Oh, all right, party pooper. But it's what you wanted." Cassandra let out her pink puff again, and this time, she went into the Doctor.

* * *

"Katerina!" Rose said, running over to her friend, and patting her back as Katerina struggled to regain her breath. "Are you okay?"

Katerina breathed in deeply. "I have a bit of a headache, but I think I'll be fine. Having someone in your body is definitely not what I signed up for."

"Oh, my."

Katerina and Rose both swivled around to face the Doctor, who was the one that spoke. "This is different."

Katerina's eyes widened as she quickly figured it out. "Cassandra?"

"Cassandra?" Rose repeated.

But Cassandra ignored them. "Goodness me, I'm a man. Yum. So many parts! And hardly ever used." Before either girl could say anything, Cassandra groaned before shaking a bit. "Ah. Ah! Two hearts! Oh baby, I'm beating out a samba!"

At that, Katerina couldn't stop the laugh that escaped her. "This isn't funny, Kat!" Rose exclaimed.

"It kind of is," Katerina said, before covering her mouth with her hand to conceal her laughter.

"Whatever," Rose said, shaking her head at Katerina before turning back to Cassandra. "Get out of him!"

"Ooh, he's slim," Cassandra said, running a hand down the Doctor's body. "And a little bit foxy." She raised the Doctor's eyebrows in Rose's direction. "You thought so too. I've been inside your head." She began walking towards Rose, who was looking at the ground sheepishly. "You've been looking. You like it."

"Please, get a room!" Katerina said for the second time that day.

"Oh, you're not better, Miss Katerina," Cassandra said, stepping towards Katerina. "You thought the same thing."

Before Katerina could point out that she only thought _once_ that this Doctor was a _teeny bit cute_, the door where the sick people were busted open, and the infected began piling in.

"What do we do?" Cassandra asked in a panicky tone. "What would he do?" She began tapping Katerina's arm quickly. "The Doctor, what the hell would he do?"

"I don't know!" Katerina said. "I've only known the man a day, and even then, he isn't the same man!"

Rose quickly looked around, and found a ladder behind them. "Ladder. We've got to get up."

Before Katerina and Rose could make their way to the ladder, Cassandra grabbed a hold of Rose and pushed her into Katerina, who caught Rose before she went tumbling to the ground. "Out of the way, Blondie!"

Katerina and Rose could only look at Cassandra in disbelief before they quickly ran after her to climb up the ladder.

"I'm never going to get a chance to even _breathe_, am I?" Katerina asked as she climbed up the ladder.

* * *

**TBC...**

**Gonna end it here because I wanna update a few more of my other stories!**

**BUT the following part should be released sometime this week!**

**REVIEW! FOLLOW! FAVOURITE! THANKS! STAY TUNED!**


End file.
